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A TOUR OF FOUR 
GREAT RIVERS 

THE HUDSON, MOHAWK, SUSQUEHANNA AND DELAWARE 

in 1769 

being the journal of 

RICHARD SMITH 

OF BURLINGTON, NEW JERSEY 
EDITED, WITH A 

SHORT HISTORY OF THE PIONEER SETTLEMENTS, 

BY 

FRANCIS W. HALSEY 

AUTHOR OF "THE OLD NEW YORK FRONTIER." 



NEW YORK 
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS 

1906 






Copyright, 1906, by 
Charles Scribner's Sons 



Published May, igob 



THE DEVINNE PRESS 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



GREAT SEAL OF THE PROVINCE OF NEW YORK 

Reproduced on the Cover 
In use from 1767 until the Revolution. 

From an impression in the State Library at Albany. 

MAP OF THE ROUTE OF RICHARD SMITH . . . Frontispiece 
The route shown in red, place names mentioned in the text being 

given and modern county lines inserted. 
Compiled by the Editor. 

FACING PAGE 

PORTRAITS OF RICHARD SMITH xiv 

(1) From a sketch in the Emmet Collection of the Lenox Library, 

where it is described as ' ' taken from a silhouette in the Coates 
collection.'''' 

(2) From a silhouette owned in the family. 

SMITH HALL xviii 

Built in Laurens, Otsego Co., N. Y., in 1773, by Richard Smith, and 
now perhaps the oldest house in Central New York south of the 
Mohawk Valley. The piazza was recently added by the present 
owner, W. V. Huntington. 
From a recent photograph. 

PART OF THE VISSCHER MAP OF NEW NETHERLANDS xxix 
Drawn before 1656 and showing the Hudson, Mohawk, St. Lawrence, 

Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers. 
From a copy in the Emmet Collection of the Lenox Library. 

vii 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

NEW AMSTERDAM IN OR BEFORE 1655 xxxii 

From a view engraved on the margin of the Nicolas J. Visscher Map 

of New Netherlands. 
This view is almost identical with one given by Van der Donck. 

COLONIAL HOUSES IN NEW YORK CITY xxxvi 

(1) The Franklin House in Franklin Square. Built about 1770. 

(2) The Walton House in Franklin Square. Built in 1750. 

(3) Bums' s Coffee House in Broadway, just above Trinity Church. 

Garden view. 

(4) Burns' s Coffee House. Front view. 
From old prints. 

HUDSON RIVER MANOR HOUSES xxxviii 

(1) The Verplanck House in Fishkill. Built about 1740. 

(2) The Beekman House in Rhinebeck. 

(3) The Van Rensselaer House which survived in Albany until recent 

years. Threatened with demolition, it has been removed to 
Williamstown, Mass., and there re-erected as a college frater- 
nity house. 

(4) The Van Cortlandt House on Croton Bay. 
From old prints. 

COLONIAL BUILDINGS IN ALBANY AND ON THE 

MOHAWK xlii 

(1) The Mabie House near Rotterdam, built in 1680, and the oldest 

house now standing in the Mohawk Valley. 

(2) St. George's Church, Schenectady, built in 1759. 

(3) The Queen Anne Parsonage at Fort Hunter, built in 171 2. 

(4) An Eighteenth Century Street Scene in Albany. 

The first three from recent photographs. The last from an old print. 

OLD SWEDISH, OR HOLY TRINITY, CHURCH IN WIL- 
MINGTON, DEL lxii 

Built in 1698, and, in continuous occupation, said to be the oldest 
church building in the United States. 

From a sketch made by Benjamin Ferris in 1845 and engraved by 
John Sartain. 

viii 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

COLONIAL BUILDINGS ON THE DELAWARE lxiv 

(i) The Laetitia House on its old site. Now standing as re-erected in 
Fairmount Park, Philadelphia. Built by William Perm and for 
a time his home. 

(2) The Quaker Meeting House in Burlington (1683-17 8 7). 

(3) The Old Patrick Colvin Ferry House, still standing opposite 

Trenton. 

(4) The Slate Roof House in Philadelphia. Occupied by William 

Penn from 1699 to 1700. 
From old prints. 

NEW YORK CITY IN 1768 4 

Looking southeast from a point on Manhattan Island near the Hudson 
River, and showing, in the center, King's College and Trinity 
Church spire, and in the distance on the right, Staten Island. 

From a sketch " drawn on the spot by Captain Thomas Hovodell, of the 
Royal Artillery, " and engraved by P. Canot. 



THE PHILIPSE MANOR HOUSE 6 

Still standing and for many years in use as the City Hall of Yonkers. 
From a steel engraving of about /8jO. 

MAPS OF ALBANY AND NEW YORK CITY 16 

(1) Albany as surveyed by Robert Yates about 1770. 

From a reproduction of the original in Volume HI of the "Documentary 
History of the State of New York." 

(2) Bernard Ratzen's Map of New York, drawn in 1767. 
Reproduced from a copy in the Lenox Library. 

TWO VIEWS OF COHOES FALLS ao 

(1) From a drawing by Isaac Weld, the traveler and author, published 

in London in IJ98. 

(2) From a sketch by Governor Thomas Pownall, made some time before 

1760, and engraved by William Elliot. 

FORT JOHNSON IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY ... 26 
Built by Sir William Johnson in 1742, and still standing between Am- 
sterdam and Fonda. 
From an old French print. 

ix 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

JOSEPH BRANT (THAYENDANEGEA) 3! 

From a portrait made in London from life during Brant" s 'visit in 
1776, the same being an original drawing formerly in the possession 
of James Bo swell. 



FOUR INDIAN POTENTATES OF NEW YORK .... 66 

(1) Tee Yee Neen Ho Ca Row, Emperor of the Six Nations. 

(2) Etow Oh Koam, King of the River Indians, or Mohicans. 

(3) Saga Yeath Qua Pieth Tow, King of the Maquas, or Mohawks. 

(4) Ho Nee Yeath Taw No Row, King of the Generethgarichs, 

or Canajoharies. 

From portraits painted in London by I. Verelst in 1710, during a 'visit 
of these Indians ivith Peter Schuyler to Queen Anne. 

On the margin of other portraits made in London at the same time, these In- 
dians are described as " the four kings of India ivho on the 2 May 17 10 tuere 
admitted by her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain praying assistance against 
the French in America, betioeen Neiv England and Canada. 



A PAGE OF THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT 68 

Illustrating, by comparison with the adjoining text, the changes made 

by Richard Smith in his transcript. 
Reproduced in facsimile from Mr. Smith' s original Journal, owned hy 

J. Francis Coad, of Charlotte Hall, Maryland. 

INDIAN RELICS FOUND ON THE UPPER SUSQUEHANNA . 86 

(1) Gorgets ( 7 ) Small adzes (13) Sinew stone 

(2) Pipes ( 8 ) Arrow points (14) Small axes 

(3) Pipe with snake (9) Small gouges (15) Knife blades 

carving (10) Stone beads (16) Banner stones 

(4) Amulets (11) Spear points (17) Spear points 

(5) Spear points (12) Scrapers (18) Perforators 

(6) Spear points 

Photographed from specimens chosen from the collection of Willard E. 
Yager, of Oneonta, New York. 



CONTENTS 

PART I 
HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 

PAGE 

I Richard Smith xiii 

II The Pioneers of the Hudson xxiii 

III The Pioneers of the Mohawk xl 

IV The Pioneers of the Susquehanna liii 

V The Pioneers of the Delaware lxi 

PART II 
A TOUR OF FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

I THE HUDSON; 

By Sloop from New York to Albany, 164 Miles, May 

5 — May 11, 1769 3 

II THE MOHAWK: 

By Wagon Road from Cohoes to Canajoharie, 52 Miles, 
May 11 — May 13 19 

III THE SUSQUEHANNA: 

By Wagon Road from Canajoharie to Otsego Lake; Thence 
by Canoe to Old Oghwaga, 106 Miles; May 13 — June 5, 
1769 29 

IV THE DELAWARE; 

By Indian Trail from Old Oghwaga to Cookooze; Thence by 
Canoe to Burlington, 236 Miles, June 5 — June 10, 1769 . 70 

V A TABLE OF DISTANCES 81 

VI NOTES ON THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF 

THE INDIANS 83 

VII INDEX 89 



PART I 

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 



HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION 



RICHARD SMITH 

jA S a contemporary record of human and other 
/ % conditions in the valleys of four great rivers, 
1 m during the period between the Stamp Act 
and the beginning of the Revolutionary War, the 
journal of Richard Smith has particular historical 
value. Three of these valleys, or some parts of them, 
at that time had been undergoing settlement by 
Europeans for somewhat more than I oo years, while 
the fourth had been in the hands of Europeans for 
about twenty-five. Except for the towns which had 
grown up at or near their mouths, each made its 
way through a country still sparsely settled. 1 Aside 
from the fur trade, agriculture was the chief industry, 

1 The population of the Province of New York in 1 77 1, exclusive of In- 
dians and negroes, was about 1 50,000, but was mainly confined to New 
York City, Long Island, Staten Island and the Hudson Valley. West of 
Orange, Ulster and Albany Counties lay the County of Tryon, comprising a 
territory that now includes eight counties, besides parts of three others. In 
all that frontier territory were only about 10,000 inhabitants. 

xiii 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

such others as existed being subordinate to it — the 
shipping that conveyed flour to the West Indies, the 
small tradesmen who earned livelihoods as middle- 
men between manufacturers and consumers. 

Mr. Smith saw these valleys, when the Indians 
still traversed the trails that had been worn deep by 
the feet of their forefathers, and when the bark canoe 
was still an indispensable adjunct of frontier trade. 
His journal is not alone valuable because of the con- 
ditions in which it was written, but also for the dis- 
crimination and precision with which its author ob- 
served real things and recorded what was vital and 
interesting in them. In many ways it is an excep- 
tional document. 

Mr. Smith belonged to a family which was long 
settled in Burlington, New Jersey, where he was born 
March 22nd, 1735, being the sixth of the family 
who in succession had borne the name of Richard. 
He was a brother of Samuel Smith, who wrote a 
history of New Jersey, that is still held in esteem by 
those who prosecute historical inquiries. At the 
family home, Green Hill, may be seen to this day 
ancient cherry trees, which Richard Smith as a boy 
helped to plant. Having studied law in Philadel- 
phia, he was admitted to the bar and afterwards 
served as a member of the New Jersey Assembly, and 
as State Treasurer. 1 When he made his tour of these 
four rivers, he was thirty-four years old. The jour- 

1 "The Burlington Smiths," by R. Morris Smith (1878). 

xiv 











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W = 



RICHARD SMITH 

nal indicates unusual powers of observation and judg- 
ment for a man of that age. 

The immediate purpose of Mr. Smith in his tour, 
was to make a survey of a grant of land now known 
as the Otego patent, comprising 69,000 acres on the 
upper Susquehanna, in which he, along with many 
others, was interested as a proprietor. He and his 
associates were a few of the many from distant places 
who, in the years immediately following the Fort 
Stanwix Treaty of November, 1768, explored and 
surveyed the fertile lands bordering on the Susque- 
hanna immediately south of the Mohawk. 

Fort Stanwix, the scene of this treaty, of which 
no part now remains, occupied the site of the present 
City of Rome, in Oneida County, New York. It 
had been built during the French War, taking its 
name from a British general, but it acquired its chief 
military distinction in 1777, when, under the name 
of Fort Schuyler, it became the scene of a notable 
siege, contemporary with the battle of Oriskany, 
fought eight miles east of it. Oriskany was a con- 
test between Indians and Tories on the one hand, 
and a relief force bound for the fort on the other. 

For many years before the treaty, there had been 
chronic trouble with the Indians on the New York 
and Pennsylvania frontiers, the Indians having grown 
more and more discontented with the white man's 
"thirst for land." Under Sir William Johnson's 
direction, a council was at last called, to meet at 

xv 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
Fort Stanwix, its purpose being to establish a scien- 
tific frontier. 

This council in its results became a memorable 
gathering. The Indians who came numbered 
3,200, — probably the largest number who ever assem- 
bled in America for a conference with white men. 
Sir William Johnson, in preparation for the meeting, 
sent to Fort Stanwix twenty large batteaux laden 
with the necessary presents for the Indians. He 
ordered sixty barrels of flour, fifty barrels of pork, 
six barrels of rice, and seventy barrels of other pro- 
visions, the basis of his calculation being that each 
Indian would consume twice as much food as a 
white man. 

After several days devoted to the preliminary nego- 
tiations, the conference ended in the formal execu- 
tion by the Indians, of a deed in which was delim- 
ited what was long afterwards famous as the Line of 
Property. This division of territory surrendered to 
the white man all title to lands that lay east of this 
line, which began near the eastern end of Lake 
Oneida, whence it proceeded to and followed the 
Unadilla River southward, then followed part of the 
Delaware and part of the Susquehanna and finally 
went westward to the Alleghany, after which it fol- 
lowed the Ohio. By this conveyance was definitely 
made over to the English a territory out of which 
states have since been created, forming as it does the 
basis of title to a large part of New York State, as 



xvi 



RICHARD SMITH 

well as of Kentucky, West Virginia, and Pennsyl- 
vania. One of the witnesses to the transaction was 
Benjamin Franklin. 

The deed transferred these lands, with " all the 
hereditaments and appurtenances in the fullest and 
most ample manner unto our said Sovereign Lord, 
King George III., his heirs and successors, to and for 
his and their own proper use and behoof forever." 
While the sum paid to the Indians for this imperial 
territory was only $50,000, the king thought the 
demands of the Indians "very unreasonable," and 
contended that the mother country ought not to 
have "any part of expense of a measure calculated 
for the local interests of particular colonies." 1 

Once the treaty had been signed, the granting of pat- 
ents to the newly acquired territory became an active 
pursuit. In the same year in which it was executed, 
John Butler, who was afterwards to acquire an in- 
famous name at Wyoming, got a tract on the But- 
ternut Creek just west of the Otego grant. Following 
this came many other grants, including Croghan's 
at Otsego Lake, where twenty years later, the father 
of Fenimore Cooper was to found the settlement 
that still bears his name. 

The Otego patent comprised a- considerable part 
of the present towns of Oneonta and Otego in Otsego 
County, just north of the Susquehanna, and south of 

1 A fuller account of this treaty, with a map showing in detail the Line 
of Property, may be found in " The Old New York Frontier " ( 1901 ). 

xvii 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

Cooperstown. In issuing it, the crown reserved "all 
white or other sorts of pine trees fit for masts, of the 
growth of twenty-four inches in diameter and up- 
wards, at ten inches from the earth, for masts for the 
Royal Navy of us, our heirs, and successors." It 
imposed as a condition that one family should settle 
each 1,000 acres within three years, and should cul- 
tivate at least three acres for every fifty acres capable 
of cultivation. 1 

Mr. Smith made his tour accompanied by Robert 
Wells and several surveyors. Soon afterwards he 
began the work of settling his part of the tract which 
comprised four thousand acres on both sides of the 
Otsdawa Creek. 2 

Several families were induced to take up lands, 
but one of his projects, the founding of a Quaker 
settlement, was thwarted by the Border Wars of the 
Revolution. His notes to his journal, written twenty 
years afterwards, show that Mr. Smith personally 
visited these lands in 1773, 1777 and 1783. Dur- 
ing the visit of 1773, he built a house known after- 
wards as Smith Hall, which is still standing in the 
town of Laurens, about half way between the villages 

1 Land papers of Richard Smith, now owned by J. Francis Coad, of 
Charlotte Hall, Maryland, a great-great-grandson of Mr. Smith. 

2 The reader will perhaps pardon the personal pleasure which it gives me 
to recall here that, during a vacation from college, one hundred years after 
Mr. Smith made this survey, I acted as chain bearer in a survey on these 
Otsdawa lands, the purpose being to determine the true line between two 
farmers who had carried their disputes into court. 

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of Laurens and Mount Vision. He described the 
house at that time as follows: 

"The cellar is about six feet high, of the same 
dimensions as the house, that is thirty by twenty. 
Saturday, July 1 7th, we raised the house before din- 
ner, the persons present beside myself, Nathaniel 
Edwards, John Hicks, Jonathan Fitch, Edward 
Halsey, William Ferguson, Thomas Wise, Joseph 
Meynall, William Horner, Joseph Dean, and the 
carpenters John Newberry and John Brown — no rum 
or other liquor than good water. The house is a 
frame one, two stories high, each of eight feet, be- 
sides the garret and cellar, all built of white pine, 
except white oak, and black oak, or red oak lath. 
It is to have two large windows of 24 lights each in 
the first front story, and three above, and the like 
in the rear, with two small windows in each 
end above and below ; a front and back door ; one 
chimney and three fire-places in the Northeast end, 
and room left for others in the opposite end, with 
two small windows in the cellar, and two in the 
garret. It is the only house, properly speaking, as 
yet upon the Otego patent, the rest being only small 
log huts." 1 

During the Revolution Mr. Smith served as a dele- 
gate from New Jersey to the First Continental Con- 

1 Memoranda made by Mr. Smith in 1773 and the originals now owned 
by Mr. Coad. Mr. Coad has several deeds pertaining to the Otego patent, 
three of which are on parchment. Two of these are signed by Benjamin 
Franklin's son, William, the Colonial governor of New Jersey. 

xix 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

gress, where he is said to have kept the journal of the 
proceedings. In Matteson's picture, entitled " The 
First Prayer in Congress," his portrait is given, and 
on some of the early issues of Continental currency, 
his signature may be seen. 1 He was elected to the 
Second Continental Congress, but afterwards resigned 
in consequence of ill health. After the war, his son, 
Richard R. Smith, followed William Cooper to 
Otsego Lake, and in the winter of 1 789-1 790, 
opened the first store in the settlement. He was 
afterwards chosen the first sheriff of the county. 
Richard Smith about 1790, removed to his farm at 
Smith Hall, " to which he had long been much 
attached, and which he continued to improve and 
cultivate to the year 1799, when he removed to 
Philadelphia." 2 

On September 17th, 1803, Mr. Smith died in 
Natchez, while making a tour of the valley of the 
Mississippi, and was buried in the cemetery at that 
place. He was a man of cultivated mind, as his 
journal amply shows, with marked literary tastes. 
He numbered among his correspondents Tobias Smol- 
lett. 1 His son describes him as " a man of incor- 
ruptible integrity, of gentle and amiable manners, of 
almost unexampled temperance, having through the 
course of his life, never been known to drink the 

1 " The Burlington Smiths," by R. Morris Smith (1878). 

2 Manuscript sketch of his life, signed "his affectionate son, Richard R. 
Smith," dated Philadelphia, October 25, 1803, and now owned by Mr. 
Coad. 

XX 



RICHARD SMITH 

smallest portion of ardent spirits, or even wine. He 
possessed a strong mind, enriched with a variety of 
knowledge, collected from judicious observations 
upon men and manners, and from intimate acquaint- 
ance with almost every author of note in the ancient 
or modern languages." 

The original manuscript of the journal has been 
carefully preserved by Mr. Smith's descendants and 
is now the property of Mr. Coad. In October, 1790, 
a transcript of it was made "for the use of" M. 
Pierre Eugene du Simitiere, the Swiss artist, who was 
then living in this country, and to whom many 
eminent men sat for their portraits. Mr. Smith 
prepared for this transcript a series of comments in 
the form of notes, running with the text, but placed 
in parentheses, which are given in the present edi- 
tion as foot-notes with the initials R. S. appended. 
From this transcript another copy was made long 
afterward and eventually came into the possession of 
George H. Moore, formerly the Librarian of the 
Lenox Library. At the sale of Mr. Moore's books 
and manuscripts in 1894, it was purchased by me, 
and has formed the basis of the printer's "copy" in 
the preparation of the present edition. 

Mr. Coad has very obligingly lent the original 
manuscript in order that all changes made in the two 
transcripts might be noted. Apparently the first 
transcript was made under Mr. Smith's own eye, if 
not by his own hand, many sentences having been im- 

xxi 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

proved here and there as to construction and clear- 
ness of expression, but otherwise the copy of this 
transcript and the original journal are the same. 
The reader therefore possesses the journal as Mr. 
Smith desired it to be read by others, with the addi- 
tion of the notes that were appended by him twenty- 
one years after the original was written. Except 
for a few extracts, pertaining to particular localities, 
making in all about one fourth of the whole, the 
journal is not known to have been printed before. 



xxn 



II 

THE PIONEERS OF THE HUDSON 

WHEN Mr. Smith reached New York, 
May 5th, 1769, he found it scarcely yet 
recovered from the turmoil incident to 
the Non-Importation Agreement of 1765, in which 
(perhaps unconsciously, but none the less definitely), 
had been begun the foundations of American manu- 
facturing; incident also to the Stamp Act Congress 
of the same year, the arrival of the stamps, and their 
seizure and locking up in the City Hall then standing 
in Wall Street on the site of the present Sub-Treasury 
Building. Only four years had passed since British 
officials were hung in effigy in the streets of New 
York and the state carriage of the Acting Governor, 
Cadwallader Colden, was hauled down to Bowling 
Green, and there publicly burned. Liberty poles 
were now being maintained on the site of the present 
Post Office Building, with much difficulty, when 
maintained at all. One year later was to be fought, 
in John Street, the Battle of Golden Hill, in which, 
with a prostrate liberty pole for its immediate cause, 
was shed the first blood of the Revolution. 

The Province of New York was then one of the 

xxiii 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

smallest of the American colonies, both in population 
and in resources. The city made a much better com- 
parative showing than the country, but was still third 
among the large cities. It had special importance 
as the administrative centre for Royal interests in 
America, so that a small court, modelled after the 
London example, could be said to have been main- 
tained here. Coaches were owned by twenty-six 
persons, chariots by thirty-three, and phaetons by 
twenty-six, while eighty-five gentlemen were entitled 
to display coats of arms. 1 

In a social sense, the city was perhaps more im- 
portant than Boston or Philadelphia. The notable 
houses were the Walton in Franklin Square, and the 
Kennedy, at No. i Broadway. There were three Epis- 
copal, or Established, churches; three Presbyterian 
churches, and three Dutch Reformed ones, while six 
other denominations had each one church, — the 
Methodists, Moravians, Baptists, Quakers, French 
Catholics and Jews. King s College was a notable 
seat of learning for the Middle Colonies, and there 
was one theatre. Other buildings were the City 
Hall, Fort George, the Royal Exchange, and 
Fraunces' Tavern. 

Thomas Jones, 2 the loyalist, has drawn an idyllic 
picture of the city as he knew it in 1752, describing 
that period as "the golden age," the city being then 

1 Du Simitiere. 

2 " History of the Province of New York." 

xxiv 



PIONEERS OF THE HUDSON 

"in its happiest state." The inhabitants were in- 
creasing in numbers and wealth ; luxury was un- 
known ; the strife of parties was forgotten ; and peace 
prevailed on the northern frontier. 

While the city had grown as the rural parts could 
not, the city in its first years grew slowly. Three 
years after the first settlement, a horse grist mill, in 
South William Street near Pearl, was about the only 
visible sign of a settlement meant to be permanent. 
Twelve years later the town had only three hundred 
inhabitants, and only seven farms were under culti- 
vation. Father Jogues 1 in 1644 found four or five 
hundred people in the place, who spoke eighteen dif- 
ferent languages. In 1652 one small wharf, fifty 
feet long, sufficed for trade, the population being 
eight hundred for the city, and two thousand for the 
Province. Few of the permanent settlers were 
Dutch, the Dutch who came in those years being 
traders. After the expulsion of the Spaniards the 
Dutch had shown reluctance to emigrate from Hol- 
land, feeling that "no country was pleasanter to live 
in." 2 

But a powerful impetus was given to the city some 
thirty years afterwards, when was passed the Bolting 
Act, which provided that no mill outside of the city 
should grind flour for market. This monopoly con- 
tinued in force sixteen years, and the town under its 

1 "Description of New Netherlands." 

2 John Fiske's '* Dutch and Quaker Colonies." 

XXV 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

fostering influence went forward with rapid strides. 
Indeed the Bolting Act may be said to have laid the 
foundation of the foreign commerce of New York. 1 

Combined with other causes, this discrimination 
restricted, as with an iron hand, the growth of 
settlements in the Hudson Valley. Such attempts 
as were made there, were constantly checked, first by 
the Indians, and then by aggressions from the French 
in Canada, extending over quite one hundred years. 
Immigrants in these circumstances chose the safer val- 
leys offered in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. As the 
whole northern frontier of New York was exposed 
to this danger, it was feared that the French might 
secure the Hudson Valley, in which case no settle- 
ments there would be secure. The city itself scarcely 
felt safe, Fort George at the Battery being kept con- 
stantly in a state of military efficiency. As early as 
the time of Frontenac (1687), Canadian officials 
had urged the conquest of New York as a measure 
which would make the King of France master of 
North America. The danger was not completely 
removed until the fall of Quebec, and the Treaty of 
Paris in 1763 had forever ended the power of France 
in the New World. 

Let me outline briefly such work as had been done 
to people the Hudson Valley during the century and 
a quarter that had elapsed since the Walloons in 
1623 made the first actual settlement on Manhattan 

1 Janvier's " In Old New York." 

xxvi 



PIONEERS OF THE HUDSON 

Island. In 1 6 14, on an island opposite Albany, the 
Dutch had founded a trading post, and in 1623, 
Albany itself was founded, with Walloons for the 
principal settlers. In 1 644, Father Jogues described 
Albany as having "a wretched little fort called Fort 
Orange," with a population of 100, who reside in 
25 or 30 houses, " all made of boards, and thatched, 
the only mason's work being in the chimneys." 

The place thrived, however, as a trading post. In 
the year 1656, 46,500 beaver and other skins were 
shipped from Albany to New Amsterdam. And yet 
when Mr. Smith made his visit one hundred years 
afterward, the houses in Albany numbered only three 
hundred, and it was by no means attractive as a place 
to live in. It was still guarded by a stockade, and 
had in the centre a small fort, " a sort of citadel," 
provided with cannon, and capable of holding three 
hundred men. 1 In 1678, this fort with its 12 guns 
was described as "sufficient against the Indians," and 
in 1687, it had small arms for forty men. 2 It was 
sometimes called Fort Aurania, but more often Fort 
Orange. 

In these years the Dutch had well explored the 
interior of the Province. The Visscher " Map of 
New Netherlands," which dates from before 1656, 
shows the course of the Hudson, Mohawk, Susque- 
hanna and Delaware with a fair degree of general 

1 "Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New York." 

2 Dongan's " Report on the Province." 

xxvii 




PART OF THE VISSCHER MAP OF NEW NETHERLANDS 

DRAWN BEFORE 1656 AND SHOWING THE HUDSON, MOHAWK, ST. LAWRENCE, 

SUSQUEHANNA AND DELAWARE RIVERS 

From a copy in the Emmet Collection of the Lenox Library 



PIONEERS OF THE HUDSON 

accuracy, while the number of place names given 
is surprisingly large. 

The first efforts made to establish settlements along 
the Hudson met with constant obstructions in the 
form of Indian hostilities. In one of the outlying 
settlements the Indians, in 1643, killed forty Hol- 
landers and burned many houses, besides barns filled 
with grain. 1 At Esopus, or Rondout, a trading 
post had been established in 1614, 2 and what could 
be called a settlement was made there about 1640, 
when the entire population of the Province did not 
exceed one thousand. 

These first pioneers at Esopus were forced away 
by the Indians, but the place was soon settled again, 
and in 1655 Peter Stuyvesant personally staked out 
a village there and sent twenty-four soldiers to guard 
it. In 1657 the place was described as "an exceed- 
ingly beautiful land," where "some Dutch inhab- 
itants have settled themselves, and prosper especially 
well." 3 By 1658 Esopus contained between sixty 
and seventy Europeans who that year put " 990 
schepels of seed grain into the ground." 4 They had 
found it necessary, however, to live close together in 
villages, although cultivating lands at a distance, and 
to build a fort on the site of Rondout, and hence 
the name Rondout. 

1 Jogues. 

2 E. M. Bacon's "The Hudson from Ocean to Source." 

3 "Documentary History of the State of New York." 

4 A schepel is the equivalent of a bushel. 

xxix 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

In 1658, the village resisted a siege from the In- 
dians, and in 1 66 1 , after the new village of Wiltwick, 
now Kingston, had been founded, the pioneers were 
again attacked. Wiltwick was completely destroyed, 
twelve buildings being burned, eighteen people killed, 
six made prisoners, and sixty-live others taking flight. 1 
Three years later the Eastern shore of the Hudson 
was devasted by the Mohicans. In spite of these 
warnings, settlers returned to Esopus, and in 1668 
were founded the neighboring villages of Marbletown 
and Hurley. A local court was established, and in 
1673 Kingston could boast a warehouse thirty feet 
by forty. In 1646 and 1656, deeds to land on Cat- 
skill Creek had been obtained from the Indians, and 
in 1656 one at Schodack. 

None of these settlers were Englishmen, the Dutch 
having strictly prohibited the English from going to 
Esopus and Albany. Englishmen from Lynn, Mass- 
achusetts, who in 1639 had sought to found a settle- 
ment at Manhasset on Long Island were driven out 
by the Dutch, and sailing eastward, began a settlement 
at Southampton, which was probably the first Eng- 
lish colony planted in New York State. 2 Some years 
later non-intercourse was proclaimed with Connecti- 
cut, and in 1657 a fine of £50 was imposed for har- 
boring Quakers over night, while any vessel bring- 
ing Quakers into the City was subject to confisca- 

1 "Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New York." 

2 Southold, Long Island, also claims this distinction. The rival claims* 
have, I believe, never been satisfactorily adjusted. 

XXX 



PIONEERS OF THE HUDSON 

tion. 1 French Protestants, however, were welcomed, 
Walloons and Huguenots forming a considerable 
element in all the settlements on the Hudson. 
Others who came to the Province were Germans, 
Danes, Norwegians and Bohemians. 

From the Esopus centre went out those adventurous 
pioneers who, in the years when Esopus was attacked 
by Indians, pushed westward to the fertile lands 
in the southwestern part of Orange County, known 
collectively as Minisink, where grew up a thriving 
settlement. Before the century closed, a neighboring 
one called Way wayyonda was founded. The Indians 
gave trouble at Minisink, and in 1669 a massacre 
occurred, "the bloody horrors of which still linger 
in the traditions of the neighborhood." 2 

These Indian wars almost depopulated the Prov- 
ince. When they began, the population was about 
2,500, but when they closed, it was under one thou- 
sand. Indeed it was not until some years after the 
English rule had become well established that the 
Province could again boast of 2,500 people. 

With the English conquest, fresh efforts were made 
to people the Hudson Valley. At Esopus, a new and 
large tract was acquired in 1664, and thirty lots were 
granted to each soldier of the garrison. Twenty years 
later the settlers at that place petitioned to be allowed 
to choose their own officers and were declared rioters 

1 Broadhead's "History of New York." 

2 Stone's "Life of Brant." 

xxxi 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

for their presumption. After having been bound 
over to keep the peace, they were released on paying 
their fines. At New Paltz, in 1677, a deed to a 
tract twelve miles long was obtained by Hugue- 
nots who had been in Kingston since 1 660, and the 
beginnings were made of an important community. 
These settlements in Orange and Ulster Counties long 
remained the granary of the Province. 

In 1678, the entire Province contained only 
twenty-four towns, villages and parishes; and twenty 
years later the number of saw-mills — and a saw-mill 
was a first necessity to pioneers — was only forty. 1 The 
population was about eight thousand in 1678. Of 
these the city alone had 3,430, who were housed in 
about four hundred dwellings. Long Island, Staten 
Island and Westchester County, being less exposed 
to hostilities than other neighborhoods, contained 
the greater part of the remainder. Twenty years 
later the Province had 1 7,000 inhabitants, of whom 
4,937 were in the City, and 8,241 on Long Island. 
In Orange County were only 219; in Ulster and 
Dutchess 1,387, and in Albany County, which then 
extended over all territory in the Province west and 
north of the present limits of Albany County, were 
1, 384^ Few of the immigrants had yet come from 
the British Isles. In 1687 Governor Dongan de- 
clared that, in the course of seven years, not more 

1 Bellomont to the Lords of Trade and Plantations. 

2 Returns printed in the "Documentary History of the State of New 
York." 

xxxii 



PIONEERS OF THE HUDSON 

than twenty of the immigrants were English, Scotch 
or Irish. 

One important cause of this disinclination to settle 
in New York was the use made of the Colony by 
England as a place to which objectionable or crimi- 
nal persons were deported. The Colony thus ac- 
quired a bad name. Moreover, it became a favorite 
resort for pirates, to whom it was not inhospitable, 
Captain Kidd being among the number received. It 
also maintained, at the foot of Wall Street, a slave 
market, the number of slaves in the Province in 
1723 being more than 6,000, and not all were 
black. 1 The city itself failed at times to keep such 
headway as it gained. Lieutenant Governor Clarke, 2 
in 1 74 1, declared that, when he arrived in the Prov- 
ince, he found "the shipbuilding almost dead," and 
one hundred houses " empty for want of tenants." 
In these circumstances, while men who were am- 
bitious of official life eagerly sought positions in 
New York, others who desired to take up industrial 
pursuits and rear families, preferred to plant homes 
elsewhere. 

Along the Hudson a system of land holdings came 
into existence by which settlements were still further 
restricted. In 1629 what is known as the Charter 
of Privileges and Exemptions offered liberal grants 
of land to those who, within four years, should bring 

1 "Documentary History of the State of New York." 

2 Letter to the Lords of Trade and Plantations. 

xxxiii 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

fifty grown-up persons to the Province, and settle 
them along the Hudson, these lands to be held as 
patroonships. The West India Company reserved 
all right to the fur trade, but other privileges almost 
feudal were acquired by the patroons. 

Oldest of these famous estates was the Van Rens- 
selaer estate, the beginnings of which were made as 
early as 1630. Its founder was Killien Van Rens- 
selaer, who was interested in the West India Com- 
pany, but never came to America. From his home 
in Amsterdam, Holland, he employed agents to trade 
with the Indians on the upper Hudson, taking lands 
in exchange for goods. This manor grew in time 
to be an almost independent little principality. In 
1650, complaint was made by the authorities on 
Manhattan Island that the patroon "causes all his 
tenants to sign that they will not appeal to the Man- 
hattan authorities," and in practice "absolutely abol- 
ishes whomsoever he pleases," and " does not 
allow any person to reside there except at his pleasure 
and upon certain conditions." The Van Rensselaer 
patroonship was the only one of those granted by 
the Dutch which survived after 1664, the others 
having "died a natural death or been bought back 
by the Dutch West India Company." 1 

After the English conquest, other feudalistic estates, 
with more restricted privileges, were founded under 

1 Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer in the "North American Review" 
for August, 1901 . 

xxxiv 



PIONEERS OF THE HUDSON 

the name of manors. Extending from Yonkers 
northward to the Croton River, and comprising 390 
square miles, Frederic Philipse, by purchases from 
the Indians and by grants from the government, ac- 
quired a vast tract, which in 1693 was erected into 
a manor. 1 North of him was the Van Cortlandt 
Manor, dating from 1697, anc ^ reaching to Anthony's 
Nose. Its manor house, still standing, was built to 
serve as a fort as well as a dwelling. 

Next came the Romboudt and Verplanck Manors, 
granted in 1685, when Dongan was Governor, and 
extending between the Fishkill and Wappinger 
Creeks several miles along the river, and sixteen 
miles back into the interior. East of this lay the 
Beekman Manor. Next, on the north, lay that 
part of the river where Robert Livingston acquired 
a princely domain, which eventually made one of his 
heirs the richest man in the Province. 

The owners of these tracts sought to secure settlers, 
but in the early years their success was small. Pioneers 
of the best class, seeking freedom in the new world, 
were reluctant to become land tenants, a condition of 
life in which the old world had taught them that 

1 Of tliis family was Mary Philipse, whose hand Washington is said to 
have sought in marriage, not knowing she was already engaged to Col. Roger 
Morris. By a strange irony of fate, the house which she and Col. Morris 
were building for a home on Manhattan Island at the time of Mr. Smith's 
visit, became in 1776 the headquarters of Washington, Col. and Mrs. 
Morris having fled from the city as loyalists. One of the romantic traditions 
connected with this marriage is that an Indian soothsayer, who was present 
at the ceremony, remarked to Mary Philipse, " your possessions shall pass 
away when the eagle shall despoil the lion." 

XXXV 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

there was serious danger of becoming serfs. Such as 
came were obliged at first to live in pits dug as cel- 
lars might be and then roofed over. 

Writing in 1701, the Earl of Bellomont, Governor 
of the Province, declared to the Lords of Trade, 1 
that "not less than 7,000,000 acres have been granted 
away in thirteen grants, and all of them uninhabited, 
except Mr. Van Rensselaer's grant, which is twenty- 
four miles square, and on which the town of Albany 
stands." Two generations had passed away since 
these Van Rensselaer lands were acquired. Mean- 
while they had "fallen into many hands by the 
Dutch system of dividing them equally among their 
children." 

With the other grants no such favorable results 
had been reached. Bellomont declared that Mr. 
Livingston "has on his great grant of sixteen miles 
long and twenty-four broad but four or five cottages, 
as I am told — men that live in vassalage under him, 
and work for him, and are too poor to be farmers, 
having not the wherewithal to buy cattle to start a 
farm." Col. Van Cortlandt "has also on his great 
grants four or five of these poor families," his two 
grants being each twenty miles square. Col. Philipse 
on his manor had about twenty families "of those 
poor people that worked for him." " I do not hear," 
said the Governor further, "that Philipse's son, Col. 
Schuyler, Col. Beekman, or Col. Smith have any 

1 " Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New York." 



XXXVI 




COLONIAL HOUSES IN NEW YORK CITY 



(i) The Franklin House in Franklin Square. Built about 1770. 
(2) The Walton House in Franklin Square. (3) Hurns's Coffee House in Broadway, just 

Built in 1750. above Trinity Church. Garden view. 

(4) Hurns's Coffee House. Front view. 
From old prints 



PIONEERS OF THE HUDSON 

tenants on their grants," and then added that many 
people had been "wickedly stripped of their lands 
by these grantees." 

Early in the new century, an important, though 
temporary, accession to the population came from 
Germany. Men of the peasant class from the Palat- 
inate, having been forced by the wars between their 
country and France to leave their homes in a state 
of great poverty, sought the protection of Queen 
Anne, and made arrangements by which they emi- 
grated to New York, where they were to acquire 
lands and eventually were to reimburse the Crown 
for their passage money and other expenses. 

Several thousand came over, beginning in 1710. 
Under Governor Hunter, it was arranged that they 
should take up lands in Livingston Manor, where, 
about eight miles below the city of Hudson, five 
villages were laid out for them. But they did not 
thrive; under the conditions imposed they found it 
impossible to make money, and after a stern struggle 
for a few years, gave up the task. Many removed 
to Schoharie, and others found their way to the Upper 
Mohawk. A small number remained in the Hud- 
son Valley — 126 families on the east side, 97 on the 
west. The failure of these settlements was excep- 
tional, but it illustrates the radical defect in a system 
of land holdings which, under the patroons and lords 
of manors, for a long period retarded the growth of 
the Hudson Valley. 

xxxvii 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

As late as 1759, in a memorial asking for clergy- 
men to be sent to the Hudson Valley, it was stated 
that on the east side of the river, "quite as far as we 
have any settlements abounding with people," the 
country was destitute of ministers, except for two 
Dutch and two German ones, and many people have 
almost lost all sense of Christianity." In Philipse 
Manor there were " people enough for a large con- 
gregation, without any minister." In other words, 
it was mentioned, as if somewhat remarkable, that 
from Yonkers to the Croton River there were enough 
people to fill one of the small churches of that day. 1 

But the best evidence of the backward condition 
of the Province is found in the census. New York, 
which in our day has long stood first among the 
States in population, was eighth among the colonies 
in 1755. Pennsylvania in that year had 220,000 
people, Massachusetts 200,000, Virginia 125,000, 
Maryland 100,000, Connecticut 100,000, New 
Hampshire 75,000, New Jersey 75,000, and North 
Carolina 75,000, but New York had only 55, ooo. 2 

Mr. Smith's tour was made thirteen years after 
these returns were compiled. During the second 
half of this period, with the return of peace and a 
peace which it was known would last — at least so 
far as the claims of France were concerned — remark- 
able growth had set in. By 1 774, the population was 

1 "Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New York." 

2 Returns made to the Lords of Trade and Plantations. 

xxxviii 




HUDSON RIVER MANOR HOUSE 
(.) The Verplanck House in FishkiU. Built about .740. 

(2) The Beekman House 

(3) The Van Rensselaer House w hich survived in Albany un,„ recen^^Sreatened 

w,th demolmon, i, has been removed to Williamstown. Mass/and there 

re-erected as a college fraternity house. 

(4) The Van Cortlandt House on Croton Hay. 



PIONEERS OF THE HUDSON 

estimated to have reached 182,000, of whom 21,000 
were black. But in the first half of these thirteen 
years growth had been impossible, for then occurred 
the last and most destructive of the French Wars, 
when the map of the whole northern frontier of 
New York became dotted with forts and camps. 1 
That region furnished sites for several important 
battles, Albany becoming the chief base of supplies, 
and a rendezvous for troops. Niagara, Lake George 
and Ticonderoga in those years witnessed many 
engagements, preliminary to that final combat further 
north, one of the decisive battles in the history of 
the world — the victory of Wolfe over Montcalm at 
Quebec. 

1 A partial list of the forts or fortified towns in the Province at that time 
would include these : In the Hudson Valley and on the lakes north of it, 
Fort George (in New York City), Rondout, Philipse Castle, Van Cortlandt 
Manor House, Fort Orange, Fort George (on Lake George), Fort Edward, 
Fort Ann, Fort Ticonderoga and Crown Point; on the Mohawk, Fort John- 
son, Fort Hunter, Canajoharie, German Flats, Fort Stanwix, Fort Bull and 
Fort Brewerton; on Lake Ontario, Fort Oswego and Fort Niagara; on the 
Susquehanna, Cherry Valley and Oghwaga. 



XXXIX 



Ill 



THE PIONEERS OF THE MOHAWK 

KNOWLEDGE of the Mohawk is contem- 
porary with the founding of the trading post 
, at Albany. Two men, of whom one was 
named Kleynties, explored the Mohawk in that year 
or the next and went down the Susquehanna from 
Otsego Lake. 1 Champlain, for the French, in the same 
year (already in 1 609 he had explored, almost to its 
head, the lake called after him — this was in the same 
year and season that Hudson sailed up the river bear- 
ing his name, the two men being only one hundred 
miles apart, and yet each was ignorant of the other's 
presence), visited central New York, coming by way 
of Lake Ontario, and thus probably reached some of 
the headwaters of the Mohawk. 

All through the Dutch period, fur traders explored 
the Mohawk in their bark canoes, but white men 
founded no actual settlements there, until after the 
English had established their supremacy. The 
Dutch minister Megapolensis, however, had gone 

1 On this expedition was in part based the Figurative Map, the earliest map 
of the interior of New York. It shows all four of the rivers visited by Mr. 
Smith. The Visscher or Van der Donck map of before 1656 shows these 
rivers with many additional details. 

Xl 



PIONEERS OF THE MOHAWK 

into the country preaching to the Indians and vis- 
iting their castles. 1 Meanwhile, the French also had 
come — not as traders or soldiers, but as Jesuit mis- 
sionaries, displaying a zeal and devotion " unsur- 
passed in the history of Christianity." 2 

First among the Jesuits was Isaac Jogues, who 
was brought into the Mohawk country as a captive 
and horribly tortured by the Indians, as he " fol- 
lowed them through the still November forest, and 
shared their wild bivouac in the depths of the wintry 
desolation." 3 Escaping from his captors, Jogues 
reached Manhattan Island, and thence sailed for 
France, but soon returned voluntarily as a missionary 
to the Mohawks, who now treacherously murdered 
him. 4 " One of the purest examples of Roman 
Catholic virtue which the Western world has seen," 
was Jogues. 5 Joseph Bressani, another captive mis- 
sionary, came in 1644, and like Jogues was bar- 
barously tortured. With only one finger of his right 
hand left entire, he wrote from the Mohawk to the 
general of his order in Rome, a letter stained with 
his own blood, his ink being " gunpowder mixed 
with water, and his table the earth." 

The beginnings of actual settlements date from 

1 Megapolensis's " Treatise on the Mohawks." 

2 Morgan's "League of the Iroquois." 

3 Parkman's "Jesuits in North America." 

4 This occurred near the present village of Auriesville, on the south side of 
the Mohawk, a few miles west of Fort Hunter. 

5 Parkman. 

xli 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

1662, when a grant of the "great flat" at Schenec- 
tady was made to Arent Van Curler, who soon began 
to build houses and erect mills. Van Curler had 
been an agent, or commissioner, of the Van Rens- 
selaer estate and acquired much distinction in the 
frontier annals of his time. It was through his per- 
sonal efforts that Jogues made his escape from cap- 
tivity. At the same time Van Curler, by fair dealing, 
secured the lasting friendship of the Indians. By 
them he was always known as Corlear, and so much 
did they esteem him that ever afterwards the gov- 
ernors of the Province were called, not by their own 
names, but by his, and the governor's official resi- 
dence to them was always " Corlear's house." 

For more than ten years Schenectady remained 
the most remote settlement on the Mohawk, ranking 
as an outpost on the New York frontier, with Mini- 
sink as settled from the lower Hudson. Next fol- 
lowed a settlement at Rotterdam, eight miles west of 
Schenectady, where may still be seen the Mabie 
House, built in 1680, and now the oldest structure 
standing in the Mohawk Valley. 1 Meanwhile, the 
French continued to assert their claims to northern 
and western New York. De Curcelles, with 1,300 
men, made an expedition against the Mohawks in 
1665, and burned five of their castles, or palisaded 
villages, and La Salle, in 1669, took possession of 
Lake Erie and Lake Ontario, building a fort at 

1 W. Max Reid's "The Mohawk Valley." 

xlii 




COLONIAL BUILDINGS IN ALBANY AND ON THE MOHAWK 

(i) The Mabie House near Rotterdam, built in 1680, and the oldest 
house now standing in the Mohawk Valley. 
(2) St. George's church. Schenertadv i,\ -ri r\ • t> 

h„-i, ' a ' ncnenectad >' (3) 1 he Queen Anne Parsonage in Fort Hunter, 

ount in 1750. , ... . 

,J * built in 1712. 

(4) An Eighteenth Century Street Scene in Albany. 
The first three from recent photographs. The last from an old print. 



PIONEERS OF THE MOHAWK 

Niagara. Other Frenchmen in 1673 erected at 
what is now Kingston, Ontario, another fort to 
which they gave the name of Frontenac. The Eng- 
lish seemed not to have fully understood the meaning 
of these events until 1675, when Governor Andros 
personally ascended the Mohawk to the site of Utica, 
where he met the chiefs of the Iroquois in a council 
extending over several days, the result of which was 
the appointment of an Indian commission that was 
to have marked influence on subsequent events in the 
conflict with the French. 

Fourteen years later, Fort Niagara having been 
destroyed, a memorable invasion of the valley was 
made by the French, under Frontenac. Having 
reached Schenectady at night Frontenac, without 
being discovered, gained an entrance into the forti- 
fied town then comprising about forty " well-built 
houses." He " beset each house, murdered the 
inhabitants, and then burned the houses." Some 
sixty persons were killed, twenty-seven made pris- 
oners, and twenty-seven others escaped to Albany. 1 

Important grants of land, leading to scandalous 
exposures and finally to a revocation of the grants, 
had been made in those early days on the Mohawk. 
They included one to a man named Penhorne that 
was fifty miles long and two miles wide, one to 
Captain Evans forty miles by thirty, and a still larger 
one to Dr. Dellius, a Dutch minister who labored 

1 " Documentary History of the State of New York." 

xliii 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

among the Mohawks. This reckless disposal of some 
of the most valuable lands of the Province was made 
in the time of Governor Fletcher. 

When Lord Bellomont came over as Fletcher's 
successor, severe representations were made to the 
home government as to what these grants meant. 
Bellomont, in 1698, wrote that the Dellius tract was 
reported to be eighty-six miles long and twenty-five 
broad, or 1,376,000 acres in extent, " which is a pro- 
digious tract of country to grant away to a stranger 
that has not a child, that is not denizened, and in a 
word a man that has not any sort of virtue or merit." 
Moreover, there was "not a Christian inhabitant on 
either of his grants." The same was true of Captain 
Evans's tract, which "has but one house on it, or 
rather a hut where a poor man lives." 1 

Bellomont pointed out that the most serious feature 
of these large grants was the harm they would do to 
the English alliance with the Indians, since they 
would "constrain and force the Indians of the Ma- 
quase 2 nation to desert this province, and fly to the 
French." He added that "it was impossible while 
things remained so, that the country can ever be set- 
tled or peopled, the grantees being too few to do it." 
The Mohawks had been "the best guard and security 
to these frontiers," and if they were dispossessed, it 
would be difficult for the English to resist the French. 

1 Letter to the Lords of Trade and Plantations. 

2 Mohawk. 

xliv 



PIONEERS OF THE MOHAWK 

Moreover, others of the Five Nations would follow 
the Mohawks, and New York was "the safeguard 
and chief defence of all His Majesty's northern plan- 
tations." 

After these patents had finally been vacated, the 
Mohawk territory began to be partitioned off into 
small grants, the earliest dating from 1703, but it 
was not until fifty years afterward, that the entire 
south side of the stream passed into private hands, the 
grants then numbering twenty-eight. Meanwhile, 
to the north of Schenectady, and lying just west of 
the Hudson, had been made the large grant known as 
Kayaderosseras, which comprised 256,000 acres, par- 
titioned among thirteen persons. It was settled with 
much difficulty. 1 

In the first part of the new century, settlers could 
do little toward peopling the Mohawk. Even the 
Peace of Utrecht 2 in 171 3 was not followed by ac- 
tive immigration, the government being slow to offer 
incentives. When Governor Burnet established a 
trading post at Oswego his act was heralded as a sign 
of exceptional enterprise by a royal governor, and 
so indeed it remains as a fact in the history of the 
State. A new " thirst for land " then set in, and some 
little progress was made. 

While many small patents were being issued, a 
missionary work going forward in the valley exercised 

1 See a map of these grants in the " Documentary History of the State of 
New York." 

2 By this Peace was ended the War of the Spanish Succession. 

xlv 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

considerable influence on its development. Governor 
Dongan was the first among the royal governors who 
saw the importance of this work as a matter of state 
policy. It was necessary that Protestants, as repre- 
senting English interests, should counteract the work 
of the Jesuits who represented the interests of France. 
In 1687, Dongan asked the Indians not to "receive 
any French priests any more, having sent for English 
where you can be supplied with all to content." He 
wrote to the home government asking for five or six 
ministers to live at the Indian castles and thus oblige 
the French priests "to return to Canada, whereby 
the French will be divested of their pretences to the 
country, and then we shall enjoy that trade without 
any fear of its being diverted." 1 Dongan was soon 
afterward recalled, but his policy had made some 
headway and in 1700 an act was passed "against 
Jesuits and Popish priests." 

Protestant missionaries then came in. At Schen- 
ectady, in 1 70 1 , was stationed Bernardus Freeman, a 
Calvinist, who reported that thirty-five Mohawks out 
of one hundred were Christians, and that he had trans- 
lated into the Mohawk tongue the Ten Command- 
ments, the Athenasian Creed, and parts of the Prayer 
Book. Then came Thoroughgood Moor, who la- 
bored among the Mohawks three years and was fol- 
lowed by William Andrews, who also remained three 

1 "Documentary History of the State of New York." 

xlvi 



PIONEERS OF THE MOHAWK 

years. It was within this period that a fort one hun- 
dred and fifty feet square, with a block-house at each 
corner, and a school house thirty by twelve feet, was 
built at Fort Hunter. Queen Anne was the moving 
spirit in this enterprise, having been inspired to it by 
the visit which Col. Peter Schuyler, formerly Mayor 
of Albany, made to London in 1710, Schuyler taking 
with him four Indian kings. One of these kings was 
the grandfather of the Mohawk leader Joseph Brant, 
who in Mr. Smith's tour became his guide on the 
Susquehanna. 1 Mr. Andrews's labors came to a close 
in 171 8. Among those who followed him were 
John Miln and Henry Barclay. Barclay in 1743 re- 
ported that only a few unbaptised Mohawks remained. 
Under the influence of these missionaries a few set- 
tlements were founded. 

The chief obstacle to settlements, wrote Lieutenant 
Governor Clarke, had been " the massacres in King 
William's War by the French and Indians, so that 
very little progress was possible until the Peace of 
Utrecht." After that date, a few farmers began to 
settle on the Mohawk. The crops grown by them 
were good and more families soon came in. But 
war again broke out with the French of Canada in 
1745, when a descent was made upon Saratoga, and 
forty houses were destroyed and one hundred pris- 

1 At Fort Hunter still stands what is known as the Queen Anne Parsonage, 
which has come down from 1712. 

xlvii 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

oners captured. Destruction was also done else- 
where on the frontier until the more remote parts of 
the County of Albany became a scene of desolation. 

In the midst of the work done by the missionaries, 
there arrived in the valley a man who was destined 
to give a great impetus to settlements and finally to 
dominate its interests for quite thirty years. During 
that period his influence with the Indians became so 
great that to him more than to all other persons is 
to be ascribed the important aid the Indians rendered 
in the final overthrow of the French power. Wil- 
liam Johnson (afterwards Sir William) came to the 
Mohawk Valley in 1738, as the agent of his uncle, 
Sir Peter Warren, who had a large grant west of 
Schenectady, and south of the Mohawk. Johnson 
founded a settlement beyond Fort Hunter, to which 
he gave the name of Warren's Bush. Here he 
cleared land, built mills, opened roads, and arranged 
to bring in settlers. 

Of this work we gain an important hint in a lettei 
from Lieut. Governor Clarke, to the home govern- 
ment, in 1736, in which he refers to " a scheme to 
settle the Mohawk country which I have the pleasure 
to hear from Ireland and Scotland, is like to succeed." 
In brief, the scheme was to give 100,000 acres to 
the first 500 Protestant families that came from 
Europe "in 200 acres to a family, who being settlers, 
would draw thousands to them." 1 

1 Letter to the Lords of Trade and Plantations. 

xlviii 



PIONEERS OF THE MOHAWK 

Johnson remained five years at Warren's Bush, and 
in that time sold off on easy terms two-thirds of his 
uncle's lands, and then, having obtained for himself 
a tract of several thousand acres on the north side of 
the river, near Amsterdam, removed to it in 1743, 
and there built a saw and grist mill, as well as the 
stone house called Fort Johnson, which still stands 
there. In 1 74 1 Johnson had brought in sixty Scotch- 
Irish families, giving them lands on long leases at 
nominal rent, and thus had gathered about him a 
loyal band of feudal followers. 1 Some German refu- 
gees having come to New York, he induced them 
to settle on the Mohawk, their number being about 
1 60. Meanwhile, he carried on an active trade with 
Indians, and soon had established at Oghwaga, on 
the Susquehanna, a trading post, Oghwaga then hav- 
ing 100 Indian lodges. About 1745 he imported 
from England a breeding stud of horses, as well as 
cattle and sheep, the horses numbering thirty, the 
cattle forty, and the sheep 100. By 1746, he was 
shipping flour to the West Indies, and was the 
largest slave holder in the Province, having sixty or 
seventy slaves. 

Thus had the Mohawk entered upon a condition 
in which it could be said to have become settled 
from Schenectady to its western limits, but a new 
war broke out with France, with dangers to the 
frontier greater than ever before. In 1755, Brad- 

1 Buell's " Sir William Johnson " (1903). 

xlix 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

dock was defeated on the western borders of Penn- 
sylvania, and in 1756 Oswego was lost to the 
French. Johnson defeated the French at Lake 
George in 1755, but in 1757 a terrible blow fell 
upon the frontier in the massacre of German Flats, 
where on the upper Mohawk in 1751 had arisen a 
village of sixty dwellings and about 300 souls. 
Aroused by the French under Beletre at three 
o'clock in the morning, forty or fifty persons were 
killed, 130 made prisoners, and their buildings 
burned. Such was the destruction that when Lord 
Howe arrived he found "nothing but an abandoned 
slaughter-field." Consternation struck the frontier, 
the settlers sending their goods and valuables to 
Albany and Schenectady, until it " seemed as if these 
settlements would be entirely depopulated." 1 At this 
time, in 1758, was built Fort Stanwix to guard the 
Mohawk from the west, while Albany became the 
chief rendezvous for troops bound for that fort and for 
points in the Champlain Valley. 

How well the valley had now become peopled 
appears in a contemporary statement. At Canajo- 
harie, where Mr. Smith left the Mohawk to reach 
the Susquehanna, there stood in 1858 a fort 100 
paces in size on each side, surrounded by a ditch and 
four bastions, with pickets fifteen feet high, port- 
holes, and a stage all around for firing. At each 

1 Stone's "Life of Brant." 
1 



PIONEERS OF THE MOHAWK 

bastion were small cannon. 1 A good road ran from 
Canajoharie to Fort Hunter, twelve leagues away, 
there being i oo houses on the road, occupied mainly 
by Germans. At Fort Hunter, the cannon were seven 
and eight pounders, a church being inside the fort, 
besides thirty cabins for the Indians. From Fort 
Hunter to Schenectady, a distance of seven leagues, 
were twenty or thirty houses, occupied by Dutch 
settlers. Schenectady had 300 houses surrounded by 
pickets with a fort in the centre of the village, half 
masonry and half timber, with four bastions, a bat- 
tery of cannon on the ramparts, and capable of 
holding 200 or 300 people. Between Schenectady 
and Albany were two houses. 

On the north side of the river, in the same year, 
from the mouth of Canada Creek to Fort Johnson, 
a distance of twelve leagues, were about 500 houses, 
mostly built of stone, and occupied by Germans, but 
with no fort for the whole distance. From Fort 
Johnson to Schenectady were twenty houses. 

When peace was declared in 1763, Acting Gov- 
ernor Colden issued a proclamation inviting settlers, 
and many came into the valley. A temporary reac- 
tion followed during the conspiracy of Pontiac, when 
many thought of abandoning their homes. Johnson 
then had 1 20 families as tenants on his new estate, 
north of the old one, in what is now Johnstown, 

1 " Documentary History of the State of New York." 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 
where he built a new house, in which his beneficent 
labors came to a close in 1774, the most notable 
achievement of his last years being the Treaty of 
Fort Stanwix. 



151 



IV 

THE PIONEERS OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

THE latest of these four valleys to be settled — 
latest by more than ioo years — was the 
Susquehanna. 1 In a sense the river was 
discovered slightly in advance of Henry Hudson's 
visit to the Hudson and Delaware. This discovery, 
however, related only to its mouth, as visited by Capt. 
John Smith in the summer of 1608. To the Dutch 
the Susquehanna was not known until Kleynties and 
his companion in 1 6 1 4, after exploring the Mohawk, 
passed southward from Otsego Lake. That it was 
soon afterward visited by the early Dutch traders 
from Albany and Schenectady, may be assumed. 
These men are known to have penetrated to many 
remote parts, but French traders may have antici- 
pated them. It is more likely still that French mis- 
sionaries were contemporary with the Dutch — 
Jogues, Bruyas and Milet. 

Oghwaga, on the Susquehanna, was already an 
ancient Indian town — one of the oldest in the Prov- 

1 Susquehanna is an Algonquin word, meaning river with long reaches. 
The Iroquois name for it was Ga-wa-no-wa-na-neh Gahunda, meaning 
great island river. 

liii 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

ince. Originally founded by Mohawks who had 
had differences with their brethren in the Mohawk 
Valley, it had become the home also of discontented 
Oneidas, and finally of Tuscaroras, until the assort- 
ment of tribes living there was important enough 
to acquire a name of its own — the Och-tagh-quan-a- 
we-croones. Oghwaga was long a central trading 
post for the Susquehanna and Delaware Rivers. Here 
from the far West and South, came Indians to meet 
the Dutch. Its first occupation by the Mohawks as 
a village has been placed as far back as 1550. 1 

Other Indian villages, but much smaller ones, and 
of a more temporary character, lay at the mouths of 
several streams flowing into the Susquehanna, such 
as the Unadilla and Charlotte Rivers, and the Otego 
and Schenevus Creeks, while at Otsego Lake dwelt 
Indians who are referred to on the Visscher map as 
" Canoo-makers." Three miles above the mouth 
of the Unadilla, on the old Indian trail, long existed 
a heap of field stones, known to the white people as 
the Indian Monument — a sort of cairn that had grown 
up from the Indian custom of throwing a stone upon 
the spot when passing that way. This custom was 
understood to be a form of recognition by the Indians 
of the existence of a supreme being. The monu- 
ment disappeared about thirty years ago. At the 
mouth of the same river, there existed in the time of 
the first settlement of the place remains of an aborig- 

1 BuelPs "Sir William Johnson " (1903). 

liv 



PIONEERS OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

inal fort, which Indian tradition said had been 
erected " five hundred summers ago." In comprised 
three acres of land, and was enclosed by a ditch. 

In Governor Dongan's time, it was recommended 
that traders be sent out to form camps or settlements 
on the banks of the Susquehanna as being nearer to 
the Indians than Albany, and "consequently the In- 
dians more inclinable to go there." Dongan in 1686 
made a formal request to the Indians to see that 
neither French nor English, "go and live on the 
Susquehanna, nor hunt nor trade without my pass 
and seal." The Indians were to seize any men who 
should come without proper passports and deliver 
them in Albany "where care shall be taken for 
punishing them." 1 

With the more serious aspects that now arose in 
the trouble with the French of Canada, nothing for 
more than a generation was actually done to people 
the Susquehanna. In 1722 Governor Burnet sent out 
several young men to Oghwaga as traders, and in 1737 
Cadwallader Colden, in an official report, declared 
that "goods may be carried from this lake (Otsego) 
in battoes, or flat bottomed vessels, through Penn- 
sylvania to Maryland and Virginia " — an opportunity 
which had been improved as early as 1723, when 
thirty families of Palatine Germans, after trouble over 
their lands in Schoharie, passed down the river and 
founded settlements in Pennsylvania, thus becoming 

1 "Documentary History of the State of New York." 

lv 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

among the advance guard of the so-called " Pennsyl- 
vania Dutch.'' They were followed in 1725 by fifty 
other Palatine families, and in 1729 by another com- 
pany. Older residents still living fifty years ago, at 
the mouth of the Charlotte River, could remember 
having seen standing the stumps of trees which these 
pioneers had felled to make the canoes in which they 
went down the Susquehanna. 

Not until Sir William Johnson's time was Ogh- 
waga permanently occupied by Europeans as a trading 
post. This occurred in 1 74 1 , only three years after 
Johnson arrived in the Mohawk Valley. Soon after 
he became established at Oghwaga, missionaries from 
New England began at that place an important 
work among the Indians, which lasted about thirty 
years. The first of these was probably John Sergeant, 
who came in 1744, followed soon by David Brainard, 
and he in turn by Elihu Spencer. In 1748 Mr. 
Spencer made a translation into the Mohawk tongue 
of the Lord's Prayer, 1 of which the first words 
are : " Soung-wan-ne-ha, cau-roun-kyaw-ga." From 
Spencer's time until the Revolution, New England 
missionaries (except for a short interruption due to 
the French War, a threatened invasion by Delaware 
Indians after the defeat of Braddock) were constantly 
at Oghwaga. Among those men were Gideon 
Hawley, Samuel Kirkland, Eleazer Moseley, Eli 
Forbes and Aaron Crosby. 2 

1 Printed in Smith's " History of New York. " 

2 An account in detail of the work done by these men at Oghwaga is 
given in <( The Old New York Frontier." 

lvi 



PIONEERS OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

The white man's first title to the lands on the 
Susquehanna was acquired in 1684, when, in an 
offensive and defensive alliance, formed at Albany 
between the English and the Indians, the Indians, in 
a formal instrument signed and sealed, declared " we 
have given the Susquehanna river, which we won 
with the sword, to this government, and desire that 
it may be a branch of the Great Tree which grows 
in this place, the top of which reaches the sun." 1 It 
does not appear that the Indians intended this as a 
conveyance of all right and title, but rather as part 
of a treaty of alliance with the English, they still 
retaining the right to live and hunt on the river. 

Contemporary with the arrival of the missionaries, 
was the granting of land titles by the Provincial 
government. John Lindesay, in 1738, obtained a 
large patent at the head of Cherry Valley Creek, and 
in the same year, Arendt Bradt one on Schenevus 
Creek, while on Otsego Lake, a patent was obtained 
by one Petrie and on Canadurango Lake at Rich- 
field another was secured by David Schuyler. In 
1 75 1, Sir William Johnson acquired his vast tract, 
two miles wide, extending along the Susquehanna 
River from the mouth of the Charlotte to the Penn- 
sylvania boundary, being 100,000 acres, of which the 
part extending from the Charlotte to the mouth of 
the Unadilla is now known as the Wallace Patent. 

With a few others, these comprise the patents that 
were granted on the upper Susquehanna before the 

1 " Documentary History of the State of New York." 

lvii 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

negotiation of the Fort Stanwix Treaty in 1768. 
They had been the means, however, of planting the 
first permanant settlements on the headwaters of this 
stream. Mr. Lindesay, who had been Naval Officer 
of the port of New York, as well as Sheriff of Albany 
County, came into the country in 1738, with his 
wife and his father-in-law, besides a few servants. 
He spent the winter on these lands, during which 
his family was saved from starvation by an Indian 
from Oghwaga who secured food in the Mohawk 
Valley. Mr. Lindesay then induced a young clergy- 
man named Samuel Dunlop, whom he had known 
in New York, to come to the settlement, and in 1 74 1 
Mr. Dunlop prevailed upon several Scotch-Irish 
families from Londonderry, N. H., to settle on Mr. 
Lindesay's patent. 

Such were the beginnings of the most important 
settlement made before the Revolution, south of the 
Mohawk. It marked for many years the extreme 
outpost of civilization on the frontier of New York. 
What is more important, it brought to the frontier 
the advance guard of what proved to be a consider- 
able band of Scotch-Irish people, who, during the 
next thirty years planted settlements at other points 
on the Susquehanna. When the Revolution began, 
it was these frontiersmen who, joining with the 
Germans and Dutch of the Mohawk Valley, formed 
that enthusiastic and efficient body known as the 
Tryon County Militia, by whom was forced back- 

lviii 



PIONEERS OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

ward the rising tide of Tory sentiment, which other- 
wise might have preserved for the English cause the 
New York frontier. 

Under Mr. Dunlop's influence a log church was 
soon built in Cherry Valley, but the settlement grew 
slowly in consequence of the renewal of troubles 
with the French. Ten years had passed before a 
second company of Scotch-Irish arrived. They were 
followed in 1754 by the Harper family, including 
several men who won distinction in the Border Wars. 
In 1769 the settlement embraced forty or fifty fami- 
lies, who made up a thriving, energetic community. 

Other but smaller settlements grew up elsewhere 
in this hill country. At the foot of Canadurango 
Lake in 1758 was formed what was known as the 
Herkimer settlement. About the same time, the 
Tunnicliffe family settled at Richfield. John C. 
Hartwick attempted a settlement below Otsego Lake 
in 1 76 1 , but seems not to have succeeded until later. 
Nicholas Lowe took up lands in Springfield in 1762 ; 
Joachim Van Valkenberg settled at the mouth of 
Schenevus Creek in 1765 ; Percefer Carr, as the agent 
of Col. Edmeston, settled on the Unadilla River in 
1765; and a few German families took up lands in 
Middlefield in 1767. 

Then came the Fort Stanwix Treaty, after which 
the Susquehanna lands were quickly portioned off, 
and the way opened for pioneers whose titles could 
no longer be questioned, and whose fears of war with 

lix 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

the French and Indians were definitely at rest. John 
Butler obtained his grant in 1769, and George Cro- 
ghan in the same year secured his tract comprising 
100,000 acres on Otsego Lake, and made an attempt 
to found a settlement. Augustine Prevost, Croghan's 
son-in-law, began a settlement at the head of the lake 
in the same year. Some Scotch-Irish people about 
the same time pushed further down the valley, and 
at the mouth of the Ouleout Creek formed a settle- 
ment called Albout, while at the mouth of the Una- 
dilla, Rev. William Johnston formed another and 
larger one, which was in a thriving state when the 
Border Wars began. Just south of the Susquehanna 
settlements two New York merchants, famous in 
their time, William Walton, and Lawrence Kort- 
right, secured large tracts, bordering on the Delaware, 
now embracing each a township, bearing the Walton 
and Kortright names. 

At the time of Mr. Smith's visit, there must have 
been altogether about 100 families in these scattered 
settlements on the upper Susquehanna. With rare 
exceptions, they all became patriots in the Revolution, 
and in consequence their homes were destroyed by 
fire, many of them were massacred, and those who 
survived either fled from the country in terror, or 
served against the British in the Tryon County Militia. 



lx 



V 

THE PIONEERS OF THE DELAWARE 

BY its own name, the Delaware River pro- 
claims how all that once was Indian in its 
ownership has forever passed away. For- 
merly it was the home of Indians who by the 
English have commonly been called the Delawares, 
but before the middle of the eighteenth century the 
river had altogether ceased to be theirs. 

To the Dutch the Delaware was first known as 
the South River, its present name having been 
bestowed by the English, after its surrender to them 
by the Dutch. The Indians called it the Kithanne, 
meaning the largest stream, and usually called them- 
selves Lenni-Lenapes, meaning real men, or, as some 
interpreters say, the original people ; but they also 
used as their own name the name Dyo-Hens- 
Govola, meaning people of the morning. The 
latter term was usually employed by the Senecas, and 
perhaps was introduced by the Senecas, to whom the 
Delawares became subject. By people of the morn- 
ing, reference was made to an Eastern origin, the 
accepted tradition being that, at the time of the dis- 
covery of America by Columbus, they were living 
on Manhattan Island. Lenni-Lenape, however, is 
the older and more proper name for these Indians. 

lxi 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

The Dutch have commonly been credited with 
originating the word Manhattan, but the Delawares 
are believed themselves to have employed it, its 
meaning being a place where good timber for bows 
and arrows can be secured, the hickory trees which 
grew at the lower end of the island having possessed 
peculiar strength. It is a curious circumstance that, 
long after the dominion of these Indians over Man- 
hattan Island had passed away, another dominion 
over it was acquired by a political organization which 
derived its name from a noted Delaware chief. 1 

The coming of white men to the Delaware began 
as early as their coming to the other great rivers 
visited by Mr. Smith. Henry Hudson discovered the 
Delaware in the same year in which he sailed up the 
Hudson, and the first settlements on its lower waters 
were made at about the same time as those on Man- 
hattan Island and in Albany. In 1626 the Dutch 
built on its banks, for use in the fur trade, Fort 
Nassau, the site of which was about four miles below 
Camden. This was the first settlement made by Euro- 
peans on the Delaware River. Seven years later 
came the Swedes and Finns, who were so successful 
as fur traders that in 1 644 they were able to send 

1 Tamanend was the original form of the word Tammany, the chief of that 
name having died about 1 740. His name appears on deeds to Delaware lands, 
dated in 1683, and 1697, and he is believed to have been buried in New 
Britain Township, Bucks County, Penn. His traditional reputation is that of 
an Indian who was conspicuous for wisdom and benevolence. He appears 
in Cooper's " The Last of the Mohicans." 

lxii 




4 > ■■£ 



< 



< s 
a i 

Q 

o 

g - 



X g a 
3 5 < 



PIONEERS OF THE DELAWARE 

two vessels to Europe, in which were 6,127 P ac k- 
ages of beaver skins and 70,420 pounds of tobacco. 
In consequence of this rivalry, the Dutch, after what 
became almost armed conflict, forced the Swedes 
and Finns into subjection. 

The lands which these pioneers had taken up lay 
along Delaware Bay and the lower waters of the 
river. None of the settlements before 1664 had 
been planted further north than Philadelphia. Not 
until 1675 was Burlington founded, and then only as 
a trading post bearing the name New Beverly. Two 
years later Quakers settled there, and with the Swedes 
and Finns became the only settlers in a real sense. 
The Dutch primarily were traders, but the others 
took to husbandry. The points which the Dutch 
occupied lay along the Bay, but the Swedes and 
Finns "sought the freshes of the river Delaware." 1 

Thus the Delaware had become a home of white 
men half a century before William Penn negotiated 
his Treaty with the Indians at Shackamaxon, now a 
part of Philadelphia. At the time of his coming, a 
few settlements had been made further up the river, 
in what is now Bucks County, Pennsylvania, which 
included points perhaps as far north as Easton. 2 
Growth was rapid after Penn made his treaty. In two 
years, that is in 1684, he had perhaps six thousand 

1 William Penn's << Description of the Province of Pennsylvania " (1683). 

2 Buell in his " Life of Penn " (1904) says : "There were about a thou- 
sand — some say 1,200 — white inhabitants already in the territory granted to 
Penn." 

lxiii 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

people in his province, of whom one fourth were the 
original Swedes, Finns and Dutch. Philadelphia had 
three hundred houses and 2,500 inhabitants. 

Meanwhile, on the lower eastern shore of the 
Delaware, had been begun settlements which even- 
tually were, to form parts of another state. In 1677, 
Penn had founded his colony of West Jersey, which 
in 1680 had three thousand inhabitants, who had 
come into the country chiefly under his influence. 
These immigrants in the main settled below Burling- 
ton, but not many years elapsed before settlers had 
gone to the fertile lands further north. In 1678, 
when the line was drawn dividing West Jersey 
from East Jersey, the peopling of the northern part 
of this valley was kept well in mind. In order that 
West Jersey might include the entire valley south of 
what should be claimed by New York, the line was 
made to run from Little Egg Harbor on the Atlan- 
tic coast ten miles above Atlantic City, in a straight 
line northwest, to Cushietunk, on the Delaware. 
Cushietunk was forty miles above Port Jervis, and 
is now known as Cochecton, a station on the main 
line of the Erie Railway. 1 

For half a century afterwards Indians continued 
to dwell on the Delaware. In 171 8 a deed of re- 
lease to the Forks of the Delaware 2 was given by 

1 Parts of this line still survive on the New Jersey map as county lines, 
notably those between Ocean and Burlington, Somerset and Hunterdon 
Counties. 

2 Now Easton; the Lehigh, which flows into the Delaware at this point, 
being then called the West Branch of the Delaware. 

lxiv 



PIONEERS OF THE DELAWARE 

them and settlements followed. What was known 
as the Walking Purchase belongs to a later period. 
The character of this purchase is indicated by its name. 
A man familiar with the land and capable of pedes- 
trian feats was employed to secure as much land as 
possible from the Indians in a walk during the time 
arranged for in the agreement. Indians, however, 
were not willing to leave this territory altogether, 
and becoming troublesome, the Iroquois, in 1746, 
were appealed to for aid in forcing them away. 
The Delawares being subject to the Iroquois, were 
finally obliged to depart. They then formed villages 
further west, mainly on the Susquehanna about 
Wyoming. 

More than a thousand Palatine Germans, between 
1725 and 1740, came to the Delaware neighbor- 
hood of which the "Forks" were the center. As 
early as 1752 their commercial needs had created a 
promising village of about forty souls, now known 
as Easton, and ten years later its population had 
increased to 250, mostly Germans. 1 Elsewhere 
along the river the population had advanced 
rapidly under the impetus given by the policy of 
Penn, whose colony in 1714 boasted a population 
of 60,000, of whom more than one half had been ac- 
quired in eleven years. People other than Quakers 
came in large numbers in 171 2 and 171 3 and were 
mainly Germans, Swiss, Huguenots and Scotch-Irish. 2 

1 H. M. Kieffer's " First Settlers at the Forks of the Delaware." 
- Buell's "Life of Penn." 

lxv 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

Under other influences settlements had already 
been founded in the Port Jervis neighborhood. Here, 
in a territory known as Minisink, which derived 
its name from the Mimsi Indians, 1 tradition points to 
the arrival of white men, in the period from 1632 
to 1640. "In some former age," says Nicholas 
Depuis, a descendant of an original settler, "there 
came a company of miners from Holland, supposed 
to have been a rich and great people, from the labor 
they bestowed in opening two mines — one on the 
Delaware, where the mountain nearly approaches 
the lower point of Pahaquarry Flat; the other at the 
foot of some mountain half way between Delaware 
and Esopus, and in making the mine road from the 
Delaware to Esopus, a distance of 100 miles." 2 Other 
settlers subsequently came from Holland by way of 
the Hudson, taking up large tracts of lands on the 
Delaware, among them Huguenots who date from 
1690, and reached Minisink by way of Kingston. 
Eventually this grew to be a well-established neigh- 
borhood — certainly the largest and probably the 
earliest founded in the American Colonies at a place 
so remote from navigable waters. Mention has al- 
ready been made of the massacre which occurred 
there in 1669. 

1 Thus often stated, but it may be that the Indians got their name from 
the place, the meaning of which is given by Beauchamp as land from which 
the water has gone out. This definition pointed to a tradition that in this 
region had once existed a large lake the waters of which weie released when 
the Delaware forced its way through the Water Gap. 

2 Quoted in "Gordon's History of New Jersey" (1834.) 

lxvi 



PIONEERS OF THE DELAWARE 

When this community spread further southward 
serious trouble arose. The new County of Sussex in 
New Jersey, had been formed, with a line extending 
so far northward, that it was claimed to be an in- 
vasion of "the bounds formerly set for Minisink." 
The New York government complained that officers 
of Orange County, in which lay Minisink, had been 
"repeatedly beaten, insulted, and prevented from the 
execution of their respective offices ; taken prisoners, 
carried to points in New Jersey remote from their 
settlements and thrown into jail." The people of 
New Jersey, it was further asserted, " as often as they 
are able," possessed themselves of vacant lands in 
Orange County, and " frequently beset the homes of 
subjects by night and attempted to seize and take 
prisoners of his majesties subjects." 1 

In 1753, on the eve of the last French War, trouble 
still existed over this boundary, being described as 
"great and continuous quarrels and tumults between 
the persons near the contested bounds and bloodshed 
and murder were like to ensue." Invasions had been 
made by New York men, "even down to Minisink's 
Island, a place about forty miles below North Station 
Point." 2 In 1754, Thomas DeKay made affidavit 
that "for some time before he left home, he was every 
night obliged to nail up all his doors, excepting one 
at which he placed a guard for fear of being surprised 

1 " Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New Jersey." 

2 Cushietunk, or Cochecton. Cushietunk was formerly the name of a 
much larger territory than it is now. 

lxvii 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

in his bed by the people of New Jersey, who have 
sundry times declared they were resolved to take 
him prisoner and carry him to New Jersey." 1 

One reason for the activity of the Delaware In- 
dians, which now began on the side of the French, 
was their discontent at having been forced away from 
their own valley. With the defeat of Braddock in 
1755, they took new courage to redress their wrongs, 
and were described as " roaming among the passes 
of the mountains unmolested, until between the Dela- 
ware and Potomac the frontier had been lighted 
up with the blaze of burning cottages." Governor 
Belcher of New Jersey wrote to Governor Morris 
of Pennsylvania that the " enemy have a few days ago 
burned a town at Minisink, and put the inhabitants 
to death," 2 and added that he had had " between two 
thousand and three thousand the week past marching 
and counter-marching toward the borders of this 
province," while in addition " near two thousand 
men were ranging the woods and frontiers." 

It had accordingly been resolved to build forts and 
block-houses, "where it should be judged most proper 
on the River Delaware, into which to distribute 
about three hundred men." In 1758, it was pro- 
posed that the whole frontier "be guarded to the 
length of 90 miles on the Delaware" ; that there be 
erected on this line ten miles apart " ten houses forti- 

1 «« Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New Jersey." 

2 This report afterwards proved to be unfounded. 

lxviii 



PIONEERS OF THE DELAWARE 

fied against muskets," and to have a guard of twenty- 
five men at each of these houses, " with a sufficient 
number of dogs who are very useful in scenting the 
track of the Indians, and preventing ambuscades." 
Patrols, three or four times a day, were to pass from 
house to house. 1 Some of these forts, as shown on 
an English map, compiled twenty years afterward, 
were Reading, Van Camp, Walpack, Headquarters, 
Nominack, Shipeconk, and Jersey. 2 

One of the reports of desolation wrought by the 
Delawares, in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, in 
which lies Easton, named fifty houses burned, and 
one hundred persons murdered or taken into cap- 
tivity. Even the upper Susquehanna was threatened, 
Gideon Hawley, the missionary at Oghwaga, being 
obliged to retreat to Cherry Valley. Indians who 
were expected to devastate the whole Pennsylvania 
frontier, started north early in 1756, until from 
Shamokin to Wyalusing, "there reigned the silence 

1 " Documents Relating to the Colonial History of New Jersey." 

2 "American Military Pocket Atlas " (1776), which related in particular 
to the regions "which now are, or probably may be, the theatre of war." 
This atlas, now very rare, was published by the British Admiralty and Board 
of Trade, having been "improved from recent surveys." A copy has been 
kindly lent to me by Archibald W. Speir who acquired it from the Brinley 
collection. 

One of the curious errors in the atlas is that all Western New York, be- 
yond the Fort Stanwix Line of Property, is given to Pennsylvania, thus ignor- 
ing the Indian title to that country, as confirmed in the Fort Stanwix Treaty. 
On this map the Delaware above Port Jervis is called the Great Viskill. Jay 
Gould, in his "History of Delaware County," says the West Branch of the 
Delaware in early times was called the Fishkill. 

lxix 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

of the grave." 1 It was at this time that Major Wells 
built the fort at Oghwaga under instructions from Sir 
William Johnson. 

Earliest of the settlements above Port Jervis was 
one on the west side of the river at Cushietunk. It 
lay at the foot of a mountain called by the same 
name and rising from the Pennsylvania side of the 
river. This was the first of the settlements made in 
Pennsylvania by those Connecticut people, who 
claimed to own the lands of that Province between 
the 41st and 42nd parallels, a claim out of which 
afterwards grew their settlements at Wyoming. 

In 1750 men had been sent from Connecticut to 
view these lands, and in 1753 was formed the Sus- 
quehanna Company, comprising 840 families, after- 
wards increased to 1,200, but owing to the Indian 
troubles no actual settlement was made at Wyoming 
until 1762. Meanwhile had been formed the Dela- 
ware Company, composed also of Connecticut peo- 
ple, and by them in 1757, after the company had 
bought the Indian title, was made the settlement at 
Cushietunk, out of which five years later had grown 
a cluster of rude log cabins, housing thirty families. 2 
This settlement encountered opposition from the pro- 
prietary or Penn government of Pennsylvania which 
sought to destroy it. A proclamation of warning 
was issued and other aggressive steps were taken. 
The Cushietunk settlement was not only an actual 

iKulp's "Families of the Wyoming Valley." 

2 Alfred Mathews's " Ohio and her Western Reserve" (1902). 

lxx 



PIONEERS OF THE DELAWARE 

part of the Connecticut invasion of Pennsylvania, but 
the pioneer among those settlements. Comtemporary 
with it was a smaller settlement at the mouth of the 
East Branch of the Delaware about twenty-five miles 
further north. 1 

In 1762 about 200 Connecticut families crossed 
through the Minisink country and by way of the 
Delaware went to Wyoming. The Delaware In- 
dians claiming these lands, attacked the settlers, and 
wounded twenty of them. In 1769 forty armed 
men were sent out from Connecticut to occupy and 
defend Wyoming and were to be reinforced by 200 
others. At this time was built what is known as 
Forty Fort, a name still retained as that of a village 
on the river opposite, but above, Wilkes Barre. The 
forty men on arrival were arrested and taken to 
Easton, where they were thrown into prison, but 
new settlers soon followed until by the end of 1 770, 
about 6,000 men altogether had gone into Wyoming 
from Connecticut. A few families at the same time 
took up homes on the Delaware, the Pennsylvania 
side of which between the forty-first and forty-second 
parallels came within the limits of the County of 
Westmoreland which Connecticut had formed in 
Pennsylvania. 2 

1 Now Hancock. 

2 When finally, in 1778, these pioneers in Wyoming were attacked and 
many of them massacred by Indians and Tories, those who survived returned 
to Connecticut by way of the Pocono Mountains, thence crossing the Dela- 
ware, and proceeding through the Minisink country. After they had passed 
through a region known as the Shades of Death they found their first shelter 
at Fort Penn, which is now Stroudsburg, near the Delaware Water Gap. 

lxxi 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

The Delaware settlements from Cookooze (now 
Deposit), where, in 1769, were living the only Dela- 
ware Indians inhabiting the stream that bears their 
name, down to Port Jervis, while few in number and 
at best forming a sparsely settled territory, were now 
able to produce enough farm products, in excess of 
their own needs, to require shipments to market. 
For this purpose long flat boats called Durham boats 
were put into service, having a capacity of five or six 
hundred bushels each. Owing to the rapids in the 
Delaware, and the shallow water at many points, 
shipments were made only in times of high water. 1 

At the head of the West Branch of the Delaware, 
a small settlement had been begun before the Revo- 
lution, at the place now known as Stamford, while 
on the East Branch, at Margaretville, was founded a 
larger one. Here at Margaretville, before 1763, 
pioneers who were probably Walloons or Huguenots 
had taken up lands. They came from Esopus, which 
was distant only forty-five miles, and occupied the 
site of an ancient Indian village. Dutchmen came in 
later, until a thriving little settlement was established 
there. Lands for a distance of more than twenty 
miles along the river passed under cultivation, and 
schools in which instruction was given in Dutch 
were founded. There still remains at Margaretville 
a graveyard in which these pioneers interred their 
dead. When the Revolution began about thirty 

1 Gordon's " History of New Jersey." 

lxxii 



PIONEERS OF THE DELAWARE 

people were living in these settlements on the head 
waters of the Delaware. 1 

Such in outline are the circumstances in which, 
when Mr. Smith made his interesting tour, the val- 
leys of these four rivers had been explored, and such 
is the extent to which they had been peopled. All 
had then been known to Europeans for about a cen- 
tury and a half, — much longer in fact than the period 
from the Revolutionary War down to our own 
day — and yet they were everywhere so sparsely set- 
tled, that the total of inhabitants of all four valleys 
probably was not equal to the present population of 
Newark. 

*Jay Gould's " History of Delaware County." 



Ixxiii 



PART II 

A TOUR OF FOUR GREAT RIVERS 



THE HUDSON; BY SLOOP FROM NEW YORK TO 
ALBANY, 164 MILES, MAY 5-MAY II, 1 769 

With a View to survey a large Tract of Land then 
lately purchased from the Indians I departed from 
Burlington for Otego May 3 d 1769 in company 
with Rich d Wells, now of Philadelphia and the Sur- 
veyors Joseph Biddle Jun r & William Ridgway as 
also John Hicks. We dined at Crosswicks 1 and 
lodged at Cranbury. 

May 4. We dined at Woodbridge, called by the 
Way at Brunswick and viewed the Town and Mineral 
Works; passed thro' Elizabeth Town and lodged at 
Newark. 

5 th In the Morn? we arrived at Paulus Hook 3 
Ferry, went over and dined at Burns's Tavern 3 in 

New 

1 At that time Crosswicks was an important settlement on the direct road 
from Burlington to New York. Twenty years earlier David Brainard, the 
missionary, labored there among the Indians. 

2 Now Jersey City. 

3 Burns's Tavern, or Burns's Coffee House, stood on the west side of 
Broadway just north of the present Trinity Building. It was formerly the 
DeLancey homestead. At various times it bore different names — including the 
Province Arms, New York Arms, York Arms, and City Arms. Several 
men had been its proprietors — Burns being one of them. Here in 1765 
was signed the Non-Importation Agreement. During the Revolution, it was 
a favorite resort of military men, being near the fashionable promenade, 
or mall, in front of Trinity Church. In 1793, the building was taken 
down, and on its site was erected the City Hotel, which in turn long re- 
mained a famous hostelry. 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

New York & this we deemed an indifferent House ; 
here we saw the Gov r Sir Henry Moore and other 
noted men. In the Afternoon we took Passage in a 
sloop, Rich d Scoonhoven, Skipper, for Albany; had 
fine weather and found it extremely agreeable Sail- 
ing with the country seats of the Citizens on the 
Right Hand, and the high Lands of Bergen 1 on the 
Left and the Narrows abaft. We sailed about 1 3 
or 14 Miles & then came to Anchor for the Night; 
the great Rains just before we set out had caused the 
Water of the North River to tast almost fresh at this 
Place. The Bergen Shore is high and Rocky & the 
Eastern Side diversified with Hill and Gully. 

6* These Albany Sloops contain very convenient 
Cabins. We eat from a regular Table accommodated 
with Plates, Knives & Forks & enjoyed our Tea in 
the Afternoon. We had laid in some Provision at N. 
York & the Cap* some more, so that we lived very 
welL Our Commander is very jocose & good com- 
pany. About 7 oCloc we passed Spite the Devil 
(why so called I know not), 1 or Harlem River, which 
divides the Manhattan Island from the Connecticut. 
The Entrance here appears to be narrow, bounded on 
each side with high Land ; Kings Bridge said to be 
about a Mile from this Entrance but not in Sight. The 
Bergen Coast continues to be lined with lofty Rocks, 
thinly overspread with Cedars, Spruce & Shrubs. 

Nearly opposite to Tappan we took aTurn on Shore 

to 

1 Now known as the Palisades. 

2 Now written Spuyten Duyvil. The origin of the term has been much 
discussed. In a deed to Van Der Donck in 1646 the Indian name is given 
as Papirinimen — '« called by our people," adds the deed, «« Spytden Duyvel, 
in spite of the Devil." 




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TOUR OF THE HUDSON 

to a Part of Col. Philips's Manor, 1 from the Hills of 
which are beautiful Prospects. All the Country on 
both sides of the River from the City is hilly. The 
Manor of Philipsburg according to our Information, 

extends about Miles on the River and about 

6 Miles back and is joined above by the Manor of 
Cortland. 2 This Morn& the Sloop passed by Col. 
Philips's Mansion House and Gardens situate in a 
pleasant Valley between Highlands. The country 
hereabout excels ours by far in fine prospects and 
the Trees & Vegetables appear to be as forward 
almost as those at Burlington when we left it; but I 
conceive that our countrymen excel the People here in 
cultivation. Hardly any Houses appear on the Bergen 
Side from Paulus Hook to the Line of Orange County. 
The Tenant for Life here tells me he pays to Col. 
Philips only ^7, per Annum for about 200 acres of 
Land 6c thinks it an extravagant Rent because, on his 
demise or Sale, his Son or Vendee is obliged to pay 
to the Landlord one Third of the Value of the Farm 
for a Renewal of the Lease. The Skipper gave here 
5 coppers for a Quart of Milk & M! Wells bought 

Ten 

1 The Philipse Manor lands comprised '* all the hunting grounds " 
between Spuyten Duyvil and the Croton River. In 1693 parts of them 
were erected into a Manor which included the present town of Yonkers. 
In 1682 was built the Manor House which still stands in Yonkers and is now 
the City Hall. Mr. Philipse's possessions included Fredericksborough, since 
better known as Sleepy Hollow, above Tarrytown, which with other lands 
comprised 240 square miles. Here in 1683 rie built Castle Philipse, a 
stone structure, and also built the church which still stands there, the oldest 
religious edifice in New York state. 

2 The first of the Van Cortlandts was Oliver. It was his son, Stephanus, 
who in 1697 had his landed estates erected into a manor. The manor 
house he built is still standing in Croton Bay. It was intended to serve as a 
fort as well as a home, the walls being three feet thick and pierced with 
holes for use in defense. 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

Ten small Rock Fish for i 2 coppers. The Freight 
of a Bushel of Wheat from Albany to N York ac- 
cording to our Skipper is Four Pence, of a Barrel of 
Flour one shilling and of a Hogshead of Flour 7/6 and 
he thinks they have the same Rates from Kaatskill. 
In the Night we ran ground among the Highlands 
about 50 Miles from N. York between Orange and 
Duchess Counties. The Highlands here are not so 
lofty as I expected and the River at this place appears 
to be about Half a Mile wide. 

7 th Our Company went on Shore up the Rocks to 
a miserable Farm and House in Orange & left with 
the Farmer a Direction for Otego 1 as he and a few of 
his Neighbors seemed desirous to seek new Habita- 
tions. He pays Seven Pounds a Year Rent for about 
100 acres including Rocks and Mountains. Hudson's 
River is straight to the Highlands, but thro them very 
crooked, many Strawberries are to be seen about the 
Banks and stony Fields. Martiler's Rock 2 stands in a 
part of the River which is exceeding deep with a bold 
Shore encircled on either Hand by aspiring Moun- 
tains & thro them there is a View of a line Country 
above. Here it is chiefly that the sudden Flaws 
sometimes take the River Vessels for which Reason 
they have upright Masts for the more expeditious 
lowering of the Sails on any sudden Occasion. Be- 
yond the above Rock lies Pollaple's Island. 3 

But 

1 The name of a creek of the river Susquehanna whereon, and in the 
vicinity, we afterwards formed a settlement. — R. S. 

Otego Creek flows into the Susquehanna from the north a tew miles west 
of Oneonta, and about 25 miles below Cooperstown. 

2 This rock no longer exists there. 

3 Now written Polopel's Island. According to local tradition, it was 
called originally Polly Pell's Island. 

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TOUR OF THE HUDSON 

But a few Wheat and Rye Fields appear along the 
East Side of the River from N York hither and a 
very few Fields are ploughed as if intended for In- 
dian Corn. The Lands seem proper for Sheep or 
perhaps (if the Severity of our Winters will admit) 
for Vineyards. On the West Side among the High- 
lands are only a few Houses seated in the small Vallies 
between the Mountains. From the Streights between 
Butter Hill 1 and Broken Neck Hill 2 & below them 
there is a distant Prospect of the Kaatskill Mount 3 , 
to the N. W. Murderers Creek 3 which runs by the 
Butter Hill, divides the Counties of Orange and Ulster, 
there are a few Houses at the Mouth of the Creek. 
The soil in these Parts is broken, stony and few places 
proper for the Plow. What grain we saw growing 
was but indifferent. 

About one oCloc we passed by the Town of New 
Windsor on the Left, seeming at a Distance to consist 
of about 50 Houses Stores and Out houses placed 
without any regular Order. Here end the High- 
lands. This Town has some Trade and probably 
hereafter may be a place of Consequence as the fine 
Country of Goshen is said to lie back about 1 2 or 
more Miles. On the East Side of the River a little 
above Windsor is the Fish Kill & Landing whence 
the Sloops carry the Produce of that Side for Market. 
The North River is here thought to be near Two 

Miles 

1 From the context Butter Hill appears to be Storm King. 

2 Now Break Neck Mountain. 

3 By this is meant the stream known on the maps as Moodna Creek, which 
enters the Hudson at Cornwall. Murderer's Creek, however, still survives 
as a colloquial term for it. Below Albany, near Castleton, flowing in from 
the east, there is another stream called Murderer's Creek. 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

Miles wide and the general range of the Highlands 
by the Compass as taken on the N. Side by our Sur- 
veyors is W. S. W. & E. N. E. 

We took a Turn on Shore at Denton's Mill 1 called 
60 Miles from N. York and walked above Two Miles 
down the River to Newbury a small scattered Village 
& to Denton's Ferry. We found excellent Cyder at 
both. The New England men cross here & here- 
abouts almost daily for Susquehannah ; their Rout is 
from hence to the Minisink's accounted only 40 Miles 
distant, & we are told that 700 of their Men are to 
be in that Country by the First of June next. A 
sensible Woman informed Us that Two Men of her 
Neighborhood have been several Times across to those 
Parts of Susquehannah which lie in York Government 
& here the people say our Rout by the Albany is 
above 1 00 Miles out of the Way. This is since found 
to be true, yet that Rout is used because it is the only 
Waggon Road to Lake Otsego. 

The Lands near Hudsons River now appear less 
Hilly tho not level & a few Settlements are visible 
here and there; the Houses & Improvements not ex- 
traordinary. Denton's Mill above mentioned has a 
remarkable large Fall of Water forming a beautiful 
Cascade. We saw several other Cascades and Rills; 
divers Limekills and much Lime Stone on each 
Shore hereaway & some Appearance of Meadow Land 
of which we have hitherto seen very little. Lime 
Stone, it is said, may be found on either Side of the 
River from the Highlands to Sopus. 2 We have the 

pleasure 

1 This point is now Marlborough. 

2 Esopus is a Delaware word meaning river. Other forms are Seepers and 
Sopers. 

8 



TOUR OF THE HUDSON 

pleasure of seeing sundry Sloops & Shallops passing 
back and forwards with the Produce of the Country 
and Returns. In the Evening we sailed thro' a re- 
markable Undulation of the Water for a Mile or Two 
which tossed the Sloop about much and made several 
passengers sick, the more observable as the Passage 
before and after was quite smooth & little Wind 
stirring at the Time. We anchored between Two 
high Shores bespread with Spruce, Chestnut Oaks 
and other Trees, very like the towering Banks of 
Bergen. 

8 th There is a high Road from New York to 
Albany on both sides of the River, but that on the 
East side is most frequented; both Roads have a 
View now and then of the River. Poughkeepsing the 
County Town of Duchess stands above the Fishkill a 
little beyond the rough Water already noted. We 
passed the Town in the Night. Slate Stone Rocks 
are on the West Shore at and below Little Sopus from 
whence N York has of late been supplied. They 
reckon Little Sopus Island to be Half Way between 
N York and Albany. The Weather yesterday and 
to day very warm but the Mornings and Evenings are 
cool. Our Skipper says there are at Albany 3 1 Sloops 
all larger than this, which carry from 400 to 500 
Barrels of Flour each, trading constantly from thence 
to York & that they make Eleven or 1 2 Trips a year 
each. The general Course of Hudson's River as 
taken by compass is N & by E. and S. & by W. in 
some Places North and South. Between the High- 
lands and Kaatskill both these Mountains are in view 
at the same time. 

At Two ocloc we arrived off the Walkill, there are 

9 2 or 3 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

2 or 3 Houses at the Mouth of the Creek & a Trade 
carried on in Six or Seven Sloops. Kingston 1 the 
County Town of Ulster stands about Two Miles 
distant but not visible from the Water. The Kaats- 
kill Mountains to the N. W. appear to be very near 
tho they are at a considerable Distance. The Country 
on both Sides continues still hilly and rugged and 
what Wheat is growing, looks much thrown out and 
gullied — more Houses & Improvements shew 
themselves along the Sopus Shore and Opposite being 
an old settled Country. 

Our Vessel came to Anchor a little above the Wal- 
kill about 60 Miles from Albany. We went on 
shore to Two stone Farm Houses on Beekman 
Manor 2 in the County of Duchess. The Men were 
absent & the Women and children could speak no 
other Language than Low Dutch. Our Skipper was 
Interpreter. One of these Tenants for Life or a 
very long Term or for Lives (uncertain which) pays 
20 Bushels of Wheat in Kind for 97 Acres of cleared 
Land & Liberty to get W T ood for necessary uses any 
where in the Manor. Twelve eggs sold here for 
six pence, Butter i4 d per pound and 2 shad cost 6 d . 
One woman was very neat & the Iron Hoops of her 
Pails scowered bright. The Houses are mean ; we 
saw one Piece of Good Meadow which is scarce 
here away. The Wheat was very much thrown out, 
the Aspect of the Farms rough and hilly like all the 

rest 

1 This town has since been burned by the British General Vaughan. — R. S. 
The burning of Kingston occurred on Oct. 16, 1777. Vaughan was 

accompanying Gen. Clinton northward to reinforce Burgoyne, but arrived 
too late. Burgoyne capitulated the day after Kingston was burned. 

2 So called, although the Beekmans were not properly Patroons. 

IO 



TOUR OF THE HUDSON 

rest and the soil a stiff clay. One Woman had 
Twelve good countenanced Boys and Girls all clad 
in Homespun both Linen and Woolen. Here was 
a Two wheeled Plow drawn by 3 horses abreast, & 
a Scythe with a Short crooked Handle and a Kind 
of Hook both used to cut down Grain for the Sickle 
is not much known in Albany County or in this 
Part of Duchess. 

9 th We arose in the Morn g opposite to a large 
Brick House on the East Side belonging to M r Liv- 
ingston's Father, Rob c R. Livingston the Judge, 1 
in the Lower Manor of Livingston. Albany Countv 
is now on either Hand, & sloping Hills here and 
there covered with Grain like all the rest we have 
seen, much thrown out by the Frost of last Winter. 

Landing on the West Shore we found a Number 
of People fishing with a Sein ; they caught plenty of 
Shad and Herring and use Canoes altogether having 
long, neat and strong Ropes made by the People 
themselves of Elm Bark. Here we saw the first 
Indian a Mohicon 2 named Hans clad in no other 
Garment than a shattered Blanket; he lives near the 
Kaatskill & had a Scunk Skin for his Tobacco 

Pouch 

1 Robert R. Livingston, the judge, who had been an energetic member of 
the Stamp Act Congress, was described by Sir Henry Moore, the Governor 
of New York, as ' ' A man of great ability and many accomplishments, and the 
greatest landholder, without any exception, in New York." By "greatest " 
Sir Henry may have meant the richest: in actual acres Sir William fohnson 
is understood to have been the largest. Livingston's daughter married 
General Richard Montgomery, who fell at Quebec, and lies buried in St. 
Paul's Churchyard at Broadway and Vesey Street, New York City. His 
son, also Robert R. Livingston, was the Chancellor who administered the 
oath of office in Federal Hall, Wall Street, to George Washington at his 
inauguration as the first president of the United States. 

2 The Mohicans occupied the eastern shore of the Hudson. 

I I 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

Pouch. The Tavern of this Place is most wretched. 
Trees are out in Leaf. Cattle and Sheep, nothing 
different from ours, are now feeding on the Grass 
which seems to be nearly as forward as with us when 
we left Burlington, the Trees quite as forward & the 
White Pine is common. One Shad taken with the 
rest had a Lamprey Eel about 7 Inches long fastened 
to his Back. 

I was informed here by a person concerned in 
measuring it that the Distance from Kaatskill Land- 
ing to Schoharie is 32% Miles reckoned to Cap! Eck- 
erson's House, a good Waggon Road and Produce 
bro! down daily; from thence to Cherry Valley half 
a Day's Journey; that People are now laying out a 
New Road from Sopus Kill to Schoharie which is 
supposed to be about 32^ Miles. Sopus Creek is 
about 1 1 Miles below Kaatskill Creek and a Mile 
below where we now landed. They say that 7 or 
8 Sloops belong to Sopus. The Fish are the same 
in Hudsons River above the Salt Water as in the 
Delaware. The Skipper bought a Parcel of Fish 
here cheap. These Fishermen draw their Nets oftner 
than ours not stopping between the Draughts. 

At 3 o'Cloc we passed by the German Camp 1 a 
small Village so called having Two Churches, situated 
on the East side of the River, upon a rising Ground 
which shews the Place to Advantage. Some distance 
further on the same Side of the River we sailed by 
the Upper Manor House of Livingston. A Quantity 
of low cripple Land may be seen on the opposite 

Side 

1 A survival of the unsuccessful settlements made on Livingston Manor by 
the Palatine Germans in 1710. 

12 



TOUR OF THE HUDSON 

Side & this reaches 4 miles to the Kaatskill called 
36 miles from Albany. Off the Mouth of this Creek 
we have a View of the large House built by John 
Dyer the Person who made the Road from hence to 
Schoharie at the expence of ^400, if common Report 
may be credited. 

Two Sloops belong to Kaatskill, a little beyond 
the Mouth whereof lies the large Island of Vastric. 1 
There is a House on the North Side of the Creek 
and another with several Saw Mills on the South 
Side but no Town as we expected. Sloops go no 
further than Dyer House about Half a Mile up the 
Creek. The Lands on both Sides of Kaatskill 
belong to Vanberger, Van Vecthe, Salisbury, Dubois 
& a Man in York. Their Lands, as our Skipper says, 
extend up the Creek 1 2 Miles to Barker the English 
Gentleman his Settlement. The Creek runs thro 
the Kaatskill Mount 3 said hereabouts to be at the 
Distance of 12 or 14 Miles from the North River 
but there are Falls above which obstruct the Navi- 
gation. 

We landed in the Evening on the Kaatskill Shore 
4 Miles above the Creek but could gain no satisfac- 
tory Intelligence only that the [Dowager] Dutchess 
of Gordon and her Husband Col. Staats Long Morris 2 

were 

1 This island was afterwards called Rogers Island. 

2 Staats Long Morris belonged to the family of that name of Morrisania, 
and was a brother of Lewis Morris, one of the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence. He was an officer in the British army, who had served in 
India, where he was present at the siege of Pondicherry. Having adhered 
to the royal cause in the Revolution, he lost title to his patent on the Susque- 
hanna; but these lands were granted to his brothers Lewis and Richard after 
the war, as compensation for losses due to depredations committed by the 
British at Morrisania. 

*3 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

were just gone from Dyer's House for Cherry Valley 
and Susqueh h with Two Waggons; they went by 
the Way of Freehold at the Foot of the Mountains 
on this Side and so over them to Schoharie guessed 
to be about 32^2 Miles as was said before. 

1 th We passed by Sunday Islands whereof Scut- 
ters Island affords a good low Bottom lit for Meadow 
and some of it improved. Bear's Island is said to be 
the Beginning of the Manor of Renslaerwic which 
extends on both Sides of the River. The Lords of 
Manors are called by the common People Patroons. 
Bearen Island or Bears Island just mentioned is 
reputed to be 12 Miles below Albany. Cojemans 1 
Houses with Two Grist Mills & Two Saw Mills 
stand a little above on the West Side and opposite is an 
Island of about Two Acres covered with young 
Button wood Trees which Island, our Skipper says, 
has arisen there to his Knowledge within 1 6 years 
and since he has navigated the River. 

More low, bottom Land is discovered as we pass 
up, generally covered with Trees; being cleared might 
be made good Meadow by Banking an Improvement 
to which the Inhabitants are altogether Strangers. 
The upper End of Scotoc's Island 2 is a fine cleared 
Bottom not in Grass but partly in Wheat & partly 
in Tilth. However there was one rich Meadow 
improved. We saw the first Batteaux 3 a few Miles 
below Albany, Canoes being the Common Craft. 

One 

1 Now written Coeymans. 

2 Now Schodack, but originally Shotag, an Indian word, meaning the 
fire place, or the place where the councils are held. This island by the 
action of the water has since been divided into two, which are known as 
Upper and Lower Schodack Islands. 

3 " Battoes," as New York frontiersmen, through corruption, usually 

H 



TOUR OF THE HUDSON 

One Staat's House is prettily fixed on a rising Ground 
in a low Island, the City of Albany being 3 miles 
aHead. We discovered for the First Time a Spot of 
Meadow Ground, ploughed and sowed with Peas in 
the Broad Cast Way; the Uplands are now covered 
with Pitch Pine & are sandy and barren as the 
Desarts of N. Jersey. 

As we approach the Town the Houses multiply on 
each Shore and we observe a person in the Act of 
sowing Peas upon a fruitful Meadow of an Island to 
the right. The Hudson near Albany seems to be 
about Haifa Mile over. Henry Cuyler's Brick House 
on the East Side about a mile below the Town looks 
well & we descry the King's stables a long wooden 
Building on the left & on the same side Philip Schuy- 
ler's Grand House with whom at present resides Col. 
Bradstreet. 1 Col. John Van Renslaer has a good 
House on the East Side. 

At 

wrote this word, were boats originally brought into use by the French, as 
substitutes for the bark canoe in the fur trade, canoes being not strong 
enough to carry heavy loads. They were usually built of white pine 
boards, the bottoms flat, and both ends sharp and higher than the centre. 
In length they varied from 20 to 25 feet. The width in the centre was 
three and one half feet, and the depth about two feet. 

1 Since deceased, and Schuyler is now a Major General in the service of 
the United States. — R. S. 

Philip Schuyler, when only 23 years old, had served with Bradstreet at 
Oswego, and in 1758 had become Bradstreet's deputy commissary. In 
1 76 1 he went to England as Bradstreet's agent in settling his accounts with 
the home government. A few years later he became an acknowledged 
leader of the patriot party in New York, during the controversies that pre- 
ceded the Revolution. 

Major General John Bradstreet, whose rank had been won in the French 
War, had title to an extensive tract of land, some 300,000 acres, on the 
Susquehanna River near the mouth of the Unadilla, which, after his death, 
became a subject of litigation, unprofitable alike to his heirs and to the set- 
tlers, many of whom were ruined by the expenses involved in the contest. 

15 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

At Half after 10 oCloc we arrived at Albany 1 es- 
timated to be 164 Miles by Water from N. York 
and by Land 157. In the Afternoon we viewed the 
Town which contains according to several Gen- 
tlemen residing here, about 500 Dwelling Houses 
besides Stores and Out Houses. The Streets are 
irregular and badly laid out, some paved others not, 
Two or Three are broad the rest narrow & not 
straight. Most of the Buildings are pyramidically 
shaped like the old Dutch Houses in N York. We 
found Cartwright's a good Tavern tho his charges 
were exorbitant & it is justly remarked by Kalm 2 the 
Swedish Traveller in America that the Townsmen 
of Albany in general sustained the character of being 
close, mercenary and avaricious. They deem it 60 
miles from Albany to Cherry Valley. 

We did not note any extraordinary Edifices in 
the Town nor is there a single Building facing 
Albany on the other Side of the Riven The Fort 
is in a ruinous neglected Condition and nothing now 
to be seen of Fort Orange built by the Dutch 

but 

1 While Albany is one of the earliest permanent English settlements made 
in the United States, the French are believed to have had a trading post 
near there much earlier still — that is, in 1540, but this was soon abandoned. 

2 Peter Kalm visited America in 1 748-1 751. Writing of the fur trade at 
Albany, he said : " Many persons have assured me that the Indians are 
frequently cheated in disposing of their goods, especially when they are in 
liquor, and that sometimes they do not get one-half, or one-tenth, of the 
value of their goods. I have been witness to several transactions of this 
kind." He adds that "the avarice and selfishness of the inhabitants of 
Albany" are well known. Kalm had in mind particularly the fur traders. 
These men, as a class, not only in Albany but elsewhere, at that time, bore 
evil reputations. Parkman says many of them were "ruffians of the coarsest 
stamp, who strove with each other in rapacity, violence, and profligacy. 
They cheated, cursed and plundered the Indians, and outraged their 
families." 

l6 



/- ^«_ 




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X 



Scale .of 2000 Fet 



S 






MAPS OF ALBANY AND NEW YORK CITY 

(i) Albany as surveyed by Robert Yates about 1770. From a reproduction of the original in 

Volume III of the "Documentary History of the State of New York." 
(2) Bernard Ratzen's map of New York, drawn in 1767. Reproduced from a copy in the 

Lenox Library. 



TOUR OF THE HUDSON 

but part of the Fosse or Ditch which surrounded it. 
The Barracks are built of Wood and of ordinary 
Workmanship; the same may be said of the King's 
Store Houses. The Court House is large and the 
Jail under it. One miserable Woman is now in it 
for cutting the Throat of her Child about 5 years 
old. There are 4 Houses of Worship for different 
Denominations and a Public Library which we did 
not visit. Most of the Houses are built of Brick or 
faced with Brick. The Inhabitants generally speak 
both Dutch and English & some do not understand 
the latter. The Shore and the Wharves 3 in Number 
abounded in Lumber. Stephen Van Renslaer the 
Patron or Lord of the Manor of Renslaerwick 1 his 
House stands a little above the Town; he is a young 
man. 

The Site of the Town is hilly and the soil clay 
but round the place it is mere Sand bearing pine 
Trees chiefly of the Pitch Pine. Some Lime or 
Linden Trees as well as other Trees are planted 
before the Doors as at N York and indeed Albany 
has in other Respects much the Aspect of that City. 
The Houses are for the most Part covered with 
Shingles made of White Pine, some few with 

red 

1 This manor was founded by Killian Van Rensselaer, a wealthy pearl and 
diamond merchant of Amsterdam, Holland. At first his possessions em- 
braced land on the west side of the Hudson River, from a point I 2 miles 
south of Albany to Smack's Island, "stretching two days into the interior." 
Later he concluded the purchase of land on the east side, both north and 
south of Fort Orange, and reaching "far into the wilderness." This vast 
estate included the entire territory now embraced by Albany, Columbia, and 
Rensselaer Counties, and was known as Rensselaerwick. It was Stephen 
Van Rensselaer, the seventh patroon, who in 1765, took down the old manor 
house, and built a splendid new one, which survived until recent vears. A Kil- 
lian Van Rensselaer of this family died in New York City in November, 1905. 

17 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

red or black Tiles. In one of the Streets there is a 
Sign of the Jersey Shoe Ware House being supplied 
in Part with Shoes by Henry Guest of N. Brunswick ; 
there is a Town Cloc which strikes regularly. We 
saw some Indians here & found the Weather very 
warm and sultry. 



18 



II 



THE MOHAWK! BY WAGON ROAD FROM COHOES 
TO CANAJOHARIE, 52 MILES, MAY II-MAY I 3 

1 1 1 ! 1 Having hired an open Waggon the Com- 
pany quitted Albany early in the Morn! intending 
for Schenectady by way of Cahoe's Falls; the Fare of 
the Waggon with two Horses was 2 of. It is called 
7 miles from the City to the Mouth of the Mohawk's 
River & from thence to the Cahoes 5 miles, 1 from 
the Cahoes to Schenectady 16 Miles. From Albany 
to Schenectady in a Direct Line along the usual 
Road is 1 7 Miles. The Patroons House at the North 
End of Albany is a large handsome Mansion 
with a good Garden & Wheat Field that reaches 
down to the North River. The Road leads along 
the Bank for about 6 or 7 miles from Albany and 
the rich Bottom on each side of the River is near 
Half a Mile broad consisting of a blac Mould very 
level & low, proper for the best Sort of Meadow, 
but here sown with Wheat and Peas both which 
look well. Some of the Peas are up and some 
are now sowing. Very little Indian corn is raised 

in 

1 The Mohawk has three mouths. Mr. Smith seems to have been giving 
the distance from the southern mouth, but even that is less than five miles 
below Cohoes. Cohoes is an Indian word meaning a shipwrecked canoe, 
and refers to an occurrence, in which the owners of a canoe had a remark- 
able escape from death. 

J 9 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

in these Parts & that not planted in Furrows & Rows 
but at random, one Field excepted. They plant 
three or 4 Feet apart in the Hills & the same Ground 
every year. The Land back of this fertile Space is cov- 
ered with the Pitch and White Pine chiefly and yet 
not bad Land, and along the Mohawks River also 
this rich flat Ground extends from a Quarter to Half 
a Mile wide, but somewhat narrower on the upper 
parts of that River. 

This Stream at the Cahoes is reckoned to be about 
a Quarter of a Mile in Breadth & the Falls extend 
quite across. The Heighth of the Fall is conjectured 
by M r Wells & the Two Surveyors to be 60 Feet or 
upwards but I have seen a Copper plate that calls it 
y$ f tho' upon ocular View it appears less. The Fall 
is almost perpendicular, the whole Body of the River 
brawling over a Slate Rock. The Banks of the 
River consist of this Rock intermixed with a crumb- 
ling stone and are perhaps 30 feet higher than the 
Bed of the River. The whole looks as white as 
cream except in the middle where the black Rock 
projects a little and the water breaks into many 
small Rills. We descended down to the Shore by a 
dangerous passage and ascended by the same after 
examining every Thing below particularly some 
heavy Stones and other Indications of a Copper 
Mine being not far off. 

Upon quitting this spot we directed our Course 
for Schenectady and passed some excellent Farms 
and likewise some poor barren Pine Land; yet we 
saw choice Ground bearing the Jersey or Pitch 
Pine a Thing to me heretofore unknown. The 
Course from the Cahoes to Schenectady was nearly 

20 West 




TWO VIEWS OF COHOES FALLS 



, , Weld the traveler and author, published in London m 17 

w Fro '" * drawin ! b lwGoT ::■».-— '•— "' made some timc before I7 



TOUR OF THE MOHAWK 

West. About six Miles below that Town we are 
told that the rich Bottoms sell at ^35 or ^40 p 
Acre while the Upland will only fetch ^3 or there- 
abouts. They hardly ever plow their Upland. The 
Indian Corn in the rich Lands is said to produce 
from 40 to 60 Bushels an Acre altho every Year 
planted in the same Earth. By the Information 
rec d Stephen Van Renslaers Manor extends on each 
Side of the North River 1 2 Miles below Albany 
and 12 above by 48 Miles acrofs East & West. 
Along the Road the Trees are out in full Leaf and 
the Grass in the Vales several Inches high. Clover 
and Timothy are common to the Country. They 
use wheeled Plows mostly with 3 horses abreast & 
plow and harrow sometimes on a full Trot, a Boy 
sitting on one Horse. The Timber in these Parts 
besides the Two sorts of Pine consists of Blac & 
White, Oak, White and brown Aspen large and 
small, Bilberry, Maple red Oak Hazel Bushes, Ash 
and Gum together with Butternut and Shellbark, Hic- 
cory in plenty, Elm and others. The Woods abound 
in Strawberries, and we find the Apple Trees, Bil- 
berries, Cherries and some others in Blofsom as are the 
wild Plums which are very common here. We were 
informed by D' Stringer at Albany that the Owners 
of Hardenberghs or the great Patent 1 sell their 
Lands in Fee at 7/6 per Acre. 

12 th 

1 Issued to Johanus Hardenburg and others in 1708, with an additional 
tract in 1 75 1 . This princely estate comprised altogether something under 
2,000,000 acres and to it, in 1844, s P rea d what was known as the anti-rent 
war, which, in a milder form, had broken out sometime earlier on the 
manors of the Hudson Valley. Men disguised in sheep skins, wearing horns 
and tails, and calling themselves Indians, committed many acts of violence in 

21 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

12 th Lodged last Night at Clench's in Schenec- 
tady a very good Inn and the Landlord' intelligent 
and obliging. The Town according to our Conjec- 
ture counts about 300 Dwelling Houses besides Out 
Houses, standing in 3 Principal Streets nearly East 
and West ; these are crossed by 4 or 5 other Streets. 
Few of the Buildings are contiguous, some of them 
are constructed in the old Dutch Taste generally of 
Wood but sometimes of Brick and there may be 6 
or 7 elegant Mansions without including a large 
Dutch Church with a Town Cloc, a Presbyterian 
Meeting House and a neat English Church now fin- 
ishing off, containing a particular Pew for Sir W? 
Johnson 1 adorned with a handsome Canopy supported 
by Pilasters. There are no Wharves but a public 
Landing or Two at the Ends of the Streets where 
the Batteaux bring the Peltry and wheat from above. 
These Batteaux which are built here are very large, 
each end sharp so that they may be rowed either 
way. 

The Townspeople are supplyed altogether with 
Beef and Pork from New England most of the 
Meadows being used for Wheat, Peas and other 
Grain ; however there are certain choice Grass 

Meadows 

Delaware County, such as tarring and feathering, seizing and burning 
sheriff's papers, and finally caused the death of the sheriff, O. W. Steele. 
Companies of militia were then sent into the country, and Delaware County 
was declared to be in a state of insurrection, which after a time was sup- 
pressed. Besides the greater part of Delaware this patent comprised a large 
part of Sullivan and Ulster Counties. 

1 Sir William Johnson, the most notable figure in the Colonial history of 
New York, had for his second wife Molly Brant, a sister of Joseph Brant, 
with whom he lived in a state of felicity, she being commonly known as 
" The Indian Lady Johnson." In his will he described her as his " house- 
keeper." 

22 



TOUR OF THE MOHAWK 

Meadows about the Place and yet at the End we en- 
tered, the Sandy Pine Land approaches within 300 
Yards of the Buildings. The Mohawks River here 
is hardly wider than Half a Quarter of a Mile, the 
Course W. S. W. and E. N. E. by compass. Fresh 
Beef sells at 5 d and 6 d p pound. We thought the 
Carriers here very apt to impose on Strangers ; it was 
with some Difficulty we engaged an open Waggon 
with Two Horses for Cherry Valley for Forty Five 
Shillings; they told us the Distance was 50 Miles. 
The Inhabitants are chiefly Descendants of the low 
Dutch, a few Irish & not so many English. We 
did not observe any Orchards or Gardens worthy of 
Attention. M r Clench says the cold here is not at 
all severe and the Grass out earlier in the Spring 
than in Pennsylvania where he has lived. The North 
River was open several Times at Albany during the 
last Winter • Sloops and Oyster Boats came up both 
in January & February. Numbers of people from 
N England and elsewhere have travelled this Way 
during the last Winter & this Spring looking out for 
settlements ; there is yet remaining in Schenectady a 
small wooden Fortrefs having 4 Towers at the 
corners. 1 

In the early part of this Day we crofsed the River 
at a Ferry kept in Town from whence to Col. Guy 
Johnsons 2 son in Law to Sir W m are 1 5 Miles ; 

thence 

1 This fort had been erected during the first French War. From its earliest 
settlement Schenectady had been protected, either by a stockade or a fort. 
The word is Indian, and means beyond the opening, or beyond the pineries. 

2 Col. Guy Johnson was Sir William's successor as Superintendent of In- 
dian affairs. Remaining loyal to the crown, he retired to Canada, and 
became active in the war, his lands being confiscated afterward. 

2 3 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

thence nearly a Mile to Col. Claus 1 who also mar- 
ried a Daughter of the Baronet, & from him to Sir 
John Johnson 2 a Mile ; thence to the Spot which lies 
opposite to Fort Hunter 3 3 miles. Fort Hunter 4 
stands Half a Mile up Schoharie Creek whose 
Waters here mix with the Mohawks stream, & at or 
about the Fort live a small Party of Mohawk In- 
dians 5 who subsist by Agriculture. From Fort 
Hunter to Major Funda's 6 are 4 Miles and thence to 
M' Kincaid where we lodged 5 miles, the Road gen- 
erally lying on the Eastern Banks of the River in 
those fertile Wheat Meadows so much celebrated. 
Sir Wm. Johnson resides at Johns Town the Capital 
of the extensive County of Tryon, 7 which Town lies 

7 or 8 

1 Col. Daniel Claus, when the war began, followed the Johnsons to 
Canada, and was active on the frontier, his relations to Joseph Brant being 
particularly close. 

2 Sir John Johnson, the heir to Sir William's title, and to a large part of 
his estate, during the Border Wars was personally the most active of all the 
influential loyalists of the frontier. His Royal Greens were at the massacre 
of Wyoming, and he led two expeditions into the Mohawk Valley, effecting 
great destruction. The last is believed to have been connected with Arnold's 
treason. "Both shores of the Mohawk," says Stone, "were lighted up 
by the conflagration of everything combustible." Sir John's vast landed 
property was confiscated after the war. 

3 Tribes Hill. 

4 Fort Hunter was the Lower Castle of the Mohawks. 

5 Quere: Whether they have not since been routed by order of Gen- 
eral Sullivan ? — R. S. 

The Sullivan expedition of 1779 encountered no hostile Indians in the 
Mohawk Valley ; nor had there been any resident there since 1776, when 
practically all the Mohawks followed Col. Guy and Sir John Johnson to 
Canada. 

6 Here now stands the town that bears Major Fonda's name. 

7 Tryon County, formed in 1772 from Albany County, and taking its 
name from Governor Tryon, but later called Montgomery, after the Gen- 
eral, originally comprised the territory now embraced in the Counties of 
Otsego, Madison, Herkimer, Fulton, Hamilton, St. Lawrence, Oswego 
and Jefferson, with parts of Delaware, Oneida and Schoharie. 

24 



TOUR OF THE MOHAWK 

7 or 8 miles back from the River. The Breadth of 
the Flats on each Side of the River from Schenec- 
tady to M r Kincaid's maybe from ioo to 300 yards, 
the Road very level and good ; the Upland in general 
is no other than Pine Barrens both Stony and Hilly. 
Guy Johnson's House is of Stone 2 stories high, 
neat and handsome; the Garden behind runs down 
to the River and is accommodated with a pretty Pa- 
vilion erected over the Water. 1 Daniel Claus's 
House is of stone and one story high. Sir John's is 
also of stone and contains Two Stories, all Three 
situate at the Foot of Hills very steep, barren and 
rocky having narrow Strips of Bottom Ground. Sir 
John has most Meadow and their Farms are much 
inferior to those of many common People here- 
abouts. The Country seems to be well settled & we 
are told that wild Pidgeons breed everywhere. Sir 
John possesses an elegant Seat and Gardens called 
Fort Johnson 2 tho there is now no other Fortress 
than a wooden Block House and a Powder Maga- 
zine. From Sir Johns to his father Sir W m8 they 
count 9 Miles. 

Fort 

1 This House was afterwards, in the absence of the Family, destroyed by 
a Flash of Lightning, and all the elegant Furniture consumed, and among the 
rest, a curious Map drawn by the Colonel, and which we had viewed with 
Pleasure, describing the Bounds and Situation of the various Patents for Lands 
granted previous to the late Treaty of Fort Stanwix in this Quarter of the 
Government, with their several dates ; but another House, similar to the 
former was finished, and it has been much defaced since that Gentleman 
joined the British Interest against his own Country. — R. S. 

Col. Johnson also made a "Map of the Country of the VI Nations 
Proper, with Parts of the Adjacent Colonies." It was engraved and printed 
in 1 77 1, dedicated to the Governor, William Tryon. It may be found in 
volume IV of the "Documentary History of New York." 

2 Still standing between Akin and Tribes Hill, where it may be seen from 
a New York Central Railroad train. 

25 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

Fort Hunter, as they say for we did not go over, 
is constructed of Wood having 4 Bastions and is 
like the small Fort at Schenectady. We saw some 
of the young Indian Women who reside there & 
several other Parties of Indians some of them 
painted very hideously and preposterously in red and 
blac, — The River a little above Fort Johnson breaks 
into a Number of Channels forming so many Islands. 
The Timber seen to day was much the same as yes- 
terday with the Addition of wild Rasberries cur- 
rants and gooseberries. We observed a Saw Mill on 
the Road with 1 4 Saws, a Thing usual in this Part of 
the Country, but very uncommon if not altogether 
unknown in Jersey and Pennsylvania. 

At Kincaid's we first met with the Maple Sugar 
of which our Hostess manufactures 300 or 400 
Weight per Annum. She describes the process as 
extremely simple. In Feb. March or the Beginning 
of April as the Season admits they draw the Liquor 
from the Tree (the Acer Saccharinum Foliis quin- 
quepartito-palmatis accuminato dentatis of Linnaeus's 
Species Plantarum pag. 1055) by striking an Ax 
into it or boring it and placing proper vessels there- 
under to receive the Juice as it distils. This they 
boil for several Hours taking care to stir it while it 
cools & so pour it into any Kettle or pot previously 
rubbed with Hogs Lard and then the Sugar is taken 
out in cakes like Beeswax which when used they 
cut down with a Knife. This Kind has the Aspect 
of coarse brown Muscavado but tastes more like 
coarse loaf sugar. Mr? Kincaid says She sells it 
in Common 9 d p. pound and she has exchanged 
2 pounds of this for 3 Pounds of West India Sugar, 

26 the 




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TOUR OF THE MOHAWK 

the People esteeming the former best. They tap 
200 Trees for 400 Weight, the same Juice is con- 
verted into Molasses and sometimes into Vinegar. 
For this last the Liquor is half boiled and worked 
with Yeast. They use our common Maple also 
but prefer the Sugar Maple. After a Tree has been 
tapt several years the Liquor is thought to grow 
stronger. About 3 Gallons are sufficient for a Pound 
of Sugar and this Quantity will ooze from a Tree in 
a days Time. The Mohawks River is but shallow tho' 
very rapid and the Navigation obstructed by Rifts 
and the Inhabitants of its Banks are said to be sub- 
ject to Fevers and Agues. The Measures introduced 
originally by the Dutch are still in vogue. A 
Morgan of Land contains somewhat more than Two 
Acres and a Skipple is about 3 Pecks. Col. Claus 
is clearing the Hill before the Door with an Inten- 
tion to plant a Vineyard. A neighbor of Kincaids, 
as we hear, lately sold 360 acres of Land whereof 
30 were all Meadow, for the Sum of ^900. The 
People of the German Flats bring their Loads of 
Wheat in Sleighs down to Schenectady, the Distance 
being 60 Miles, and return in 3 Days. One Hassen- 
clever it seems has formed a Settlem* above the 
German Flats. 1 I was informed that M r Clenchs 
Tavern in Schenectady rented for ^iooa year pre- 
vious to the Peace of 1763. 

13 th 

1 These places have been since destroyed during the present War. — R. S. 

German Flats was first settled about forty years before the date of this 
journal. In 1757, as already stated in the Introduction, it was burned, 
and its people were massacred. In 1778 it was again burned by Joseph 
Brant, who carried away all the horses, cattle and sheep, but the people, 
having retired to the fort on hearing of Brant's approach, escaped bodily 
harm. 

27 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

i 3^ May. — Kincaids is not a public Tavern but 
for our Money we were civilly and tolerably enter- 
tained. The Inns between [Canajoharrie] and Cherry 
Valley are few and wretched. We crossed the River 
from Kincaids to the South Side and passed along 
its shores for 8 Miles to Scramlins 1 which is nearly 
opposite to Col. Fry's; we found the road passable. 
Fry's House of one story high is built of Lime 
Stone or has that appearance, he has a Brew House 
& these look well from the high Hill fronting 
them. 2 

1 At or near Canajoharie, "Col. Fry's" being Palatine Bridge. Cana- 
joharrie was the Upper Castle of the Mohawks. The name came from a 
place in a creek where the water flows through a circular gorge and thus 
was called by the Indians Canajoharie, meaning the pot that washes itself. 
In 1677 an Indian village stood on the opposite side of the Mohawk and 
was stockaded. 

2 Fry was one of the Members of Assembly for Tryon County. He 
afterwards removed over the River to a handsome house oddly placed in a 
Hollow just under the Hill before mentioned, from the top of which I 
beheld it in 1773 and again in 1777, and the view brought to my mind the 
Idea of a House fixed in the Bottom of a Well. — R. S. 



28 



Ill 



THE SUSQUEHANNA! BY WAGON ROAD FROM CANAJO- 
HARIE TO OTSEGO LAKE; THENCE BY CANOE TO OLD 
OGHWAGA, 1 06 MILES; MAY I 3-JUNE 5, I 769 

I 3 th May. At Scramlins we turned off from the 
River pursuing a S.W. Course for Cherry Valley and 
perceived the Soil to be blac & deep bearing very lofty 
White Pines, Butternut, Beech, Shell Bark Hickery 
and many other sorts of Timber including several 
Trees of the English Yew as affirmed by R. Wells 6c 
John Hicks who were both born in England. The 
roads were miry and heavy. We saw great plenty 
of Lime Stone & heard that a Hedge Tavern 
Keeper 1 living 5 Miles from Scramlins gave ^190 
for 200 acres where he resides. We met, on their 
Return Four Waggons which had carried some of 
Col. Croghans Goods to his Seat at the Foot of 
Lake Otsego. The Carriers tell us they were paid 
30/. a Load each for carrying from Scramlins to 
Cap! Prevost's 2 who is now improving his Estate at 
the Head of the Lake; the Cap! married Croghan's 
Daughter. 

In 

J So reads the manuscript. Perhaps it should be "A. Hedge, tavern 
keeper." 

2 Augustine Prevost's military title had been acquired in the British Army. 
He had seen service in Jamaica. Near this point there grew up a settlement 
called Springfield, which was burned by Brant in 1778, the inhabitants being 
all driven out. 

29 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

In the afternoon he arrived at Major Wells, one 
of the principal Freeholders of Cherry Valley called 
i 2 Miles from the Scramlins & 50 from Schenectady. 
Near Cherry valley we chased an Animal till he 
climbed into the Top of a tall White Pine Tree 
where we shot him. He proved to be the only 
Porcupine I ever saw, & I brought some of his 
Quils to Burlington. There are Farms and new 
Settlements at a short Distance all the Way from 
the Mohawks River, the Ground in many places 
hilly & broken but strong and producing thick and 
tall Woods. In Cherry Valley 1 there are about 40 or 50 
Families mostly of those called Scotch Irish and as 
many more in the vicinity consisting of Germans 
and others. There is a Pearl Ash Work and much 
Lime Stone in the Valley. Major Wells has a choice 
Farm with a large Quantity of even Meadow on 
each side of his House. He has lived here all the 
Two last Wars and entirely unmolested. 2 

We rec d Information at this Place that there is 
a Rout from Kaatskill across to Susquehannah in this 

Line 

1 Cherry Valley, so long the most important settlement on the Susque- 
hanna, and the parent of several others, is now a small village. For many 
years after the Revolutionary War it was an important place on the Great 
Western Turnpike. 

2 The Major died not long afterwards. His worthy Widow, Children 
and Domestics to the number of nine, were put to death in November 1778, 
and their home burnt during the horrid Massacre and Destruction of C. Valley 
by the Indian Savages and British Monsters, headed by Butler and Brant. — R. S. 

Robert Wells had a son named John who escaped. He was then at school 
in Schenectady. John Wells was afterwards an eminent lawyer in New York, 
and became associated with Alexander Hamilton. A beautiful monument 
to his memory was erected by his associates at the bar, inside of St. Paul's 
Church, at Broadway and Vesey Street, where it may still be seen. 

Walter N. Butler was the chief offender in this massacre. He seems in- 
deed to have planned it. Brant joined the expedition with some personal 

3° 



TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

Line, namely from Kaatskill to Akery 8 miles, to 
Batavia 12, to Red Kill 8, (on the Schoharie where 
it is crossed, there are said to be settled Places) from 
Red Kill to a Lake at the Head of the Mohawks or 
Main Branch of the River Delaware, 12 and to 
Otego about 16 — in all 56 Miles. 1 

14 th Being Sunday We attended Major Wells and 
his Family to the new Presbyterian Meeting House 
which is large and quite finished and heard a Sermon 
from the Rev. My Delap an elderly courteous Man 
who has lived in this settlemt above 20 years. 2 
The Congregation tho not large made a respectable 
Appearance, several of them being genteely dressed. 
From our Lodgings about the centre of the Vallev 
down to the mouth of Cherry Valley Creek they 
reckon 1 2 or 14 Miles and in Freshes one may pass 
in a Canoe from the House to Maryland. Here are 
3 Grist Mills and one Saw Mill and divers Carpen- 
ters and other Tradesmen. The Soil is a strong 

blac 

reluctance, having many old friends among the inhabitants of Cherry Valley. 
During the massacre his influence was one of restraint. He afterwards said 
the white men were " more savage than the savages themselves." The chief 
barbarities due to the Indians were committed by the Senecas, under the 
leadership of Hiokatoo, whom Brant afterwards said he could not control. 

1 In April 1777 I rode over the Delaware just below this Lake, or Pond, 
which serves as a Reservoir for a Saw Mill, and the River is no other than 
a Brook, not a Foot deep, and two or th^ee yards broad. — R. S. 

This reference appears to be to Summit Lake, the head of the River Char- 
lotte, not the Delaware. The Delaware takes its source from a spring at 
Stamford. 

2 His wife was murdered in the Massacre aforesaid. — R. S. 

Rev. Samuel Dunlop is here referred to. Surviving the massacre, he re- 
moved from Cherry Valley during the war and died elsewhere. In the 
Presbyterian Church at Cherry Valley, in the summer of 1904, a tablet was 
set up to his memory. Bishop Potter, whose grandfather, Eliphalet Nott, 
had been pastor of the same church, made one of the addresses. 

3 1 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

blac Mould with a large Proportion of Bottom Land. 
Their Patent is only for 9000 acres, the Farms 
rather small, M r Wells's Homestead being but 200 
Acres. The Price of Land uncertain & according 
to the Quality and Improvements. Uncleared 
Woods possessing a due Proportion of low Ground 
sell at least for 10/. an Acre and cultivated Farms 
from 40/. to £§. an Acre. Major Wells says he 
turns his Horses and Cattle out to full Pasture about 
the First of May sooner or later as the Season may 
prove and begins to fodder about the Middle of 
November. Summer Wheat is grown as well as 
Winter Wheat and thought to produce as much. 

From the Mouth of Cherry Valley Creek for 9 
miles upwards on both Sides the Low Lands (and 
these only) are said to belong to Gov 1 ; Clarke's 1 Heirs 
and some of the Livingston's who include the place 
called Skeneves's. 2 Gov. Clarkes son Leased out 
Lands in C. Valley (being concerned in that Patent) 
on these terms viz : Ten Years for Nothing, for 7 
Years afterwards 3* Sterling an acre then ever after 
61 sterlg. an Acre — the Landlord to pay the Quit 
Rent to the Crown. 

About 9 miles from the Mohawks River on the 
Road to Cherry Valley, as Report says, is a Brim- 
stone Spring 3 at the Foot of the Hill where we shot 
the Porcupine. We 

1 George Clarke, Lieutenant Governor of the Province, had come to 
America in Queen Anne's time. He was related to the Hydes, who were 
Earls of Clarendon. Hyde Hall on Otsego Lake and the George Hyde 
Clarkes who own it, still preserve the name in those parts. 

2 Now a small village and railroad station, the name being written 
Schenevus. 

3 Known afterwards as Sharon Springs, long a fashionable watering-place, 
and still much visited by invalids. 

3 2 



TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

We find ourselves well entertained at M r Wells's 
who keeps a Store where Powder may be had for 3/. 
and shot for 6 d p pound by the Dozen, Rum sells 
from 5/ to 6/ a Gallon, Ozenbrigs 1 8 d a yard and 
at divers Farms Cyder may be procured from the 
press at 1 2/. p Barrel. A large Quantity of Flaxseed 
is purchasable for 4/. a Bushel — The Cherry Valley 
Men make all their own Linen and some Woolen. 
A Fulling Mill is much wanted. There are Two 
Furnaces in the Pearl Ash Work. The Manager 
gives 7 d and 8 d a Bushel for Ashes and pays in Goods 
sold at a large Advance. He has one Hand to assist 
Him. A Pair of Mens shoes costs 9/. and for making 
only they ask 2/6. There is a Gun Smith and a 
Blacsmith who have 1/. a pound for Plough Shares 
Coulters & c and io d a Pound for some other Work. 
The Distance from Cherry Valley to Cap c Prevosts 
on the Head of Susquehannah is 9 Miles. 

1 5\ h We are informed that the Flats on Schoharie 1 
are pretty wide ; the Improvements there from 
about 1 2 miles up the Creek may extend 20 Miles 
further up; they carry their Wheat & Peas to 
Albany 40 miles and back again in Two Days. 
Some of the Farmers are reported to be worth 
money. It is asserted and probably with Truth 
that fresh Settlers frequently do not till their Land 
for the First Crop but only rake the ground clean, 
then sow the Wheat, harrow it in or draw a Bush 
over it and reap good Crops. 

M r Wells would accept no Recompence for our 

Entertainment 

1 Schoharie was already an old settlement, many of its lands having been 
taken up by Palatine Germans as early as 17 14. 

33 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

Entertainment, but hiring to us his Cart drawn by 
2 Horses we set out for the Lake and passing by the 
Ministers House we noticed a Pair of Elks Horns 
killed in the Neighborhood 2 years ago, the Length 
of each Horn was 4 Feet and each Horn produced 
6 points, the Distance between the Points of the 
Main Beam 3^ Feet. We arrived at Cap c Pre- 
vosts in 4 Hours, the Road not well cleared but full 
of Stumps and rugged thro' a deep blac Mould all 
the Way producing very tall Beech, Sugar Maple, 
Linden, Birch and other Timber, the course guessed 
to be N. W. 

M r Prevost has built a Log House lined with 
rough Boards of one story on a Cove which forms 
the Head of Lake Otsego. He has cleared 16 or 
18 acres round his House and erected a Saw Mill 
with one Saw, the Carpenters Bill of which came to 
^■30; he began to settle only in May last. 1 M r 
Young has a Saw Mill about 3 Miles off. The 
Cap 1 treated us elegantly. The Soil around his 
House is a fruitful blac Loam on a stratum of 
Gravel. We have not seen a Blac Walnut or hardly 
a Chesnut Tree since we left N York. The Cap 1 
says that here are stones proper for grindstones, 
absolutely necessary to every Settler, & that he has 
caused one to be made and that two Mill stones 
have been from the same Material & he thinks 
there is a Saltpetre Spring 2 a few Miles distant. He 
has several Families seated near him and gives Wages 
from 55I. to ^3 a Month. In 

1 This farm has been since greatly improved and was occupied by Nicholas 
Lowe from New York. — R. S. 

2 This reference may be to what is now Richfield Springs. 

34 



TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

In this Part of our Journey we passed thro 
Springfield in Waggoners Patent, a German Settle- 
ment of i o Families where one Myers from Philad a 
keeps a Tavern and has established a Pottery; nor do 
they lack a Blacsmith who is a good Workman, 
there are 1 2 more Persons residing on Godfrey 
Millers or Martins Patent. It is supposed to be not 
more than 5 or 6 Miles on a direct Line from Major 
Wells's to Lake Otsego & 9 or 10 Miles from Cherry 
Valley to a Colony of Six Families at West Kills from 
whence to Cobus Kill are 8 miles: this contains 6 
or 8 Families and from Cobus Kill to Schoharie 
they reckon 8 miles. Myers of Springfield gave 
j£iyo for 200 Acres about Two years ago. His 
House is about 5 Miles from Cap 1 Prevosts. At 
Harpers Saw Mill 1 in the Lower part of Cherry 
Valley they now sell White Pine Boards at 45/ p 
Thousand Feet; the Creek could be easily cleared 
out and their saw mill is about 9 miles from the 
Mouth. 

16 th Our Company was retarded yesterday for 
Want of Craft but this Morng. we proceeded in Col. 
Croghan's Batteau, large and sharp at each end 
down the Lake which is estimated to be 8 or 9 
Miles long and from one to 2 miles broad, the Water 
of a greenish cast denoting probably a Lime stone 
Bottom ; the Lake is skirted on either Side with 
Hills covered by White Pines and the Spruce called 

Hemloc 

x The Harper family who came to Cherry Valley from Windsor, Conn., 
in 1754 and became the staunchest patriots in the Revolution, obtained in 
1770 a patent to lands on the River Charlotte, where they founded the settle- 
ment of Harpersfield, which in the Revolution was destroyed by Joseph 
Brant. 

35 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

Hemloc chiefly. We saw a Number of Ducks, 
some Loons, Sea Guls and Whitish coloured 
Swallows, the Water very clear so that we des- 
cried the gravelly Bottom in one Part 10 or 
1 2 Feet down. The rest of the Lake seemed to be 
very deep; very little low Land is to be seen round 
the Lake. 

M r Croghan 1 Deputy to Sir W m Johnson the 
Superintendent for Indian Affairs, is now here and 
has Carpenters and other Men at Work preparing to 
build Two Dwelling Houses and 5 or 6 Out Houses. 
His Situation commands a View of the whole Lake 
and is in that Respect superior to Prevosts. The site 
is a gravelly stiff Clay covered with towering white 
Pines just where the River Susquehannah, no more 
than 10 or 12 yards broad, runs downwards 
out of the Lake with a strong Current. 2 Here 

we 



iCol. George Croghan, one of Sir William Johnson's deputy superintendents, 
acquired his tract on Otsego Lake, comprising 100,000 acres, as compensa- 
tion for lands in Pennsylvania, which he lost under the terms of the Fort 
Stanwix Treaty. Near Cherry Valley he had another tract of 18,000 
acres. Croghan mortgaged the Otsego tract to William Franklin, son of 
Benjamin Franklin, and lost it under foreclosure. The title eventually 
passed to William Cooper and Andrew Craig, both of Burlington, N. J., 
which will be recalled as the home of the author of this journal. Mr. 
Cooper decided to settle the tract, and in 1 786 had induced several families to 
live on it. In 1790, he brought his own family to the lake, one member of 
which was an infant, destined to wide literary celebrity. It is a curious cir- 
cumstance that the world should thus be indebted to the Fort Stanwix 
Treaty for the "Leather Stocking Tales." 

2 At this point in the lake, and almost in the stream itself, stands a large 
boulder known as Council Rock. Cooper in his " Chronicles of Coopers- 
town," tells how the trees that once overhung it formed "a noble and ap- 
propriate canopy to a seat that had held many a forest chieftain during the 
long succession of unknown ages in which America and all it contained ex- 
isted apart, as a world by itself." 

36 



TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

we found a Body of Indians mostly from Ahquhaga 
come to pay their Devoirs to the Col; some of them 
speak a little English. The Colonels low Grounds 
intended for Meadow lie at some Distance; he 
talks of opening a Road from hence to Brekabeen 
on the Schoharie from whence there is already a 
Waggon Road to the Kaatskill. We lodged at Col. 
Croghans and next Morng. get all ready to go on the 
Survey, Rob 1 Picken our other Surveyor being gone 
down to wait upon the Duchess of Gordon & Col. 
Morris (whose Tract adjoins to our Patent) & not 
expected back in 10 Days. 

17 th We departed at 9 oCloc with two pack 
Horses carrying Provisions and Baggage & one riding 
Horse with 5 Men as Chain Carriers and Servants & 
Two Mohawk Indians as guides. 1 In about 4 Miles 
we came to the Oaksnee 2 which is the Branch that 
leads into the Susquehannah from Lake Camadu- 

ragy 



1 One of these was the notorious sachem Joseph Brant, who has since fig- 
ured as the Commander of a Bloody Banditti. — R. S. 

Brant's character was not so black as it has often been painted, nor as the 
expression " commander of a bloody banditti " would imply. Brant, whose 
Indian name was Thayendanegea, and who is the most interesting, if not the 
most famous personage in connection with the Revolutionary history of Cen- 
tral New York, was now 27 years old. He was of distinguished lineage, 
his grandfather, a king of the Mohawks, having been one of the five Iroquois 
kings, who in 17 10 visited Queen Anne, their stay in London being de- 
scribed by Steele in the " Tatler" and Addison in the "Spectator." Under 
Sir William Johnson's patronage, Brant for two years had been a student at 
Dr. Wheelock's school in Lebanon, Conn., where, in Dr. Wheelock's 
words, he " much endeared himself to his teacher." He was with Sir 
William at the siege of Fort Niagara in 1759, and again at the battle of Lake 
George. In 1761 he taught the Mohawk tongue to Samuel Kirkland, the 
missionary to the Indians, who founded Hamilton College. 

2 Now known as Oaks Creek. 

37 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

ragy. 1 It is here about 8 or i o yards wide and very 
rapid. We felled a large Tree to cross upon and 
observed a rich low Bottom on each side of the 
Oaksnee but not wide. On the Way we passed 
several deep Morasses & found great Variety of 
Timber mixt with White Pine. The Waters of the 
Oaksnee are not green like those of the Otsego Duct. 
At Half after Two oCloc after passing along 
Hartwicks Line 2 we arrived at the Otego before it 
enters our Tract. 3 We crossed this Creek and dined 
in the rich low Bottom appertaining to it, the Cur- 
rent at this Spot does not exceed 5 yards in Width 
running down rapidly. The Soil hither abounds 
with shelly or slate Stone which for the most Part 
is covered by a thin Stratum of blac Mould. The 
Low Land on Otego is irregular and unequal, in 
some Places half a Mile broad, in others not 20 
Yards, but the Glebe is of the right kind and the 
Trees strong and lofty. The Country in general is 
hilly and full of fallen timber ; here are a variety of 
Weeds, good grass for the Horses and plenty of cur- 
rant and Gooseberry Bushes. After traversing a deep 
Hemloc Swamp we encamped in the Eveng. 1 1 or 
1 2 Miles from Croghans. We found a Beaver Dam 
across one of the Branches of Otego. Our Indians 
in Half an Hour erected a House capable of shel- 
tering 

1 The lake at Richfield Springs, afterwards called Schuyler's Lake, from 
David Schuyler, to whom a patent of land in those parts was granted in 
1755. In recent years the Indian name has been restored, the accepted 
spelling being Canadurango. 

2 John C. Hartwick's tract is now a township, bearing Hartwick's name. 

3 By this the author means that they reached the upper waters of the creek, 
not the point where it enters the Susquehanna. 

38 




JOSEPH BRANT (THAYENDANEGEA) 

FROM A PORTRAIT MADE IN LONDON' FROM LIFE DURING BRANT'S VISIT IN 1 776, 

THE SAME BEING AN ORIGINAL DRAWING FORMERLY IN THE 

POSSESSION OF JAMES BOSWELL 



TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

tering us from the wet for it rained most of the Day 
and Night succeeding. They place 4 crotched 
stakes in the Earth, the Two front ones being tallest. 
On these are rested poles which are crossed by other 
poles and these are covered with wide hemloc Bark ; 
a large chearful Fire being soon raised in the Front, 
they compleated our Kitchin and Bed Chamber 
wherein after broiling Salt Pork for supper we 
rested prepared by Fatigue very comfortably. 

1 8 th About Six oCloc we moved from our En- 
campm t ; this strong uneven Land is covered with 
Beech, Sugar Maple, Ash and various other sorts of 
Wood, the surface covered here and there with 
shelly stones, & at x / 2 after 1 1 oCloc we hit upon 
the East and West Line between Croghans and our 
Otego Tract about 3 Miles from the N. W. Corner. 
This morning we surmounted sundry high Hills and 
came over 5 or 6 Branches of the Otego and had 
the satisfaction of dining on our own Territory 
which is here low and tolerably level but in most 
places stony under a surface of blac Mould. Hith- 
erto we have seen no Snakes or Wild Beasts nor 
have we killed any Thing but the Porcupine. At 
y 2 after Two oCloc we crossed a Brook of the 
Unadella 1 and a little beyond it in the middle of 

one 

1 Since named by Robert Lettis Hooper Burlington Creek. Neither the 
Unadella or the Otego are marked on Evans's or any other map to my knowl- 
edge.— R. S. 

Probably the Unadilla River was not known by its present name when these 
maps were drawn. Unadilla at first was merely a term for the place where 
this stream joins the Susquehanna, its meaning being place of meeting, or con- 
fluence. Here three counties now come together — Otsego, Chenango, and 
Delaware. In Delaware County just above the confluence, lies the village of 
Sidney. Unadilla has since become, not only the name of the river here 

39 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

one of the finest Bottoms in the World stands the 
Corner to this and the Otsego or Croghans Patent, 
a Butternut marked 

"G: C: C: Y :—j68" 

The Letters stand for George Croghan and his sur- 
veyor Christopher Yates. 

The Forest in this Bottom is composed of Birch, 
Sugar Maple, Wild cherry, Blac Thorn, Butternut, 
Elm, white and red, Iron Wood & many more with 
a vast Variety of rank Weeds and Grass above a 
Foot high. The Place may be easily cleared. 1 The 
Breadth of this Bottom above a Quarter of a Mile 
and the Length farther than could be seen. We set 
a South Course by the Compass & found that a large 
Part of the Bottom was without our Tract. From 
the above Butternut Corner Mess rs Biddle and Ridg- 
way began the Survey, running down this Afternoon 
3 Miles due East. The Timber along this Line 
hither is chiefly tall Beech, Sugar Maple, and Hem- 
loc; not an Oak or Hiccory was seen. Besides Bur- 
lington Creek which I waded thro being above- the 

Knee 

tributary to the Susquehanna, but of the township in Otsego County which 
lies east of it in the corner of that county formed by the two streams, and 
also the name of the village on the Susquehanna five miles above Sidnev. 
Unadilla Village gained importance early in the 1 9th century as the terminus 
of the Catskill and Susquehanna Turnpike, then one of the great highways, 
leading into Central New York. Likewise Otego was originally a name for 
the mouth of the creek only. While the creek now bears the name, the 
settlement called Otego that grew up after the Revolution is situated 
several miles distant on the Susquehanna. 

1 Some years after this Benjamin Lull, perfected choice meadows round 
this corner. — R. S. 

Mr. Lull, with several grown-up sons, came into the country in 1777. 

40 



TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

Knee and about 8 or i o yards wide running with a 
strong Current over a stony Bottom, the soil a shelly 
stone slightly covered with black mold. We passed 
several Rivulets & noticed divers good seats for 
Mills. There was one long Hill of gradual As- 
cent & others smaller but the ground more level 
than any yet observed. We passed thro a large nat- 
ural Nursery of Cherry Trees supposed by some of 
the Company to be the Blac Mazard Cherry. The 
Water is good and many living Springs. 

1 9 th It rained all Night and this Morning & we 
experienced, now and often, that our temporary 
Bark Habitations can preserve us dry. The lively 
Note of the Swamp Robin, the Red Bird and other 
Birds from the earliest Dawn is entertaining. The 
Trees are out in compleat Leaf every where. We lay 
by all Day being rainy. At the Pearl Ash Work in 
Cherry Valley, we are informed two men make 
above a Ton per Month. They receive ^40 p Ton 
delivered at the Mohawks River a Carriage of 1 2 
Miles and are paid in goods. 

20 th We came 3 Miles before Dinner thro a 
good Soil tolerably level and near Half the Way 
is low ground proper for Meadow, well timbered 
with Beech, Sugar Maple Wild Cherry, Ash, a few 
blac Oaks and several Groves of Hemloc, but no 
Hiccory or Pine. Some of the Hellibore is two 
feet high. We saw Two Garter Snakes and one of 
our savages snapt his Gun at 4 Wolves. We skirted 
a beautiful Lake Half a Mile long and a Quarter of 
a Mile wide, surrounded with gently swelling Hills; 
it disembogues in a placid stream and presents a 

most 

41 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

most fit spot for Water Works. 1 We crossed many- 
Brooks and discovered not a few Fountains, for the 
whole Line is well watered above. Half the 
Timber is Beech & Underbrush, plenty in most 
Parts. Nearly 7 Miles from the Corner is a Knowle 
somewhat in the Form of a Sugar Loaf, beautifully 
stationed so as to command a Prospect all around of 
low grounds which extend to Otego Creek, here 
broken into several Islands, the Water 2 Feet deep 
and very rapid, the largest Branch 8 or 10 yards 
wide. The Valley is about half a Mile from Hill 
to Hill and of the richest Kind, Nature producing 
a Multitude of Herbs, Plants and Flowers and inter 
alia the wild Lilly and the Polishing Reed used by 
Joiners; the Timber here Elm, Beech, Sugar Maple, 
Birch Wild Cherry and others, a gravelly Bottom 
to the Creeks and wild rasberries in plenty. 

There is a high Hill on the farther Bank of 
Otego which, and another arm of it being passed, we 
arrived at Hartwick's Corner, a Sugar Maple, which 
is just *] x / 2 Miles and 16^ Chains from the Butter- 
nuts. 1 We begin to be teazed with Muscetoes and 
little Gnats called here Punkies. The remainder of 
this days journey was thro hilly ground with mode- 
rate Ascents and Descents; Two Hemloc Swamps & 
Sundry Brooks occurred; the Soil & Wood as before 

with 



ir This Lake is now the property of my nephew John Smith and called 
Smith's Lake. — R. S. 

On a map dated 1856 it is known as Gilbert's Lake. 

x The Butternut Creek is tributary to the Unadilla River. General Jacob 
Morris, nephew of Staats Long Morris, ascended it in a canoe in 1787, 
founded a settlement on its banks, and in 1795 was visited there by the 
French statesman, Talleyrand. 

42 






TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

with the Addition of a few large White Pines, not 
a single Pitch Pine yet seen. 

21 st It rained all last Night and this Morning. 
Nevertheless we proceeded and 93^ Miles and 1 1 y 2 
chains from the Butternuts we crossed over an 
exalted Hill from whence there is a view beyond the 
Susquehannah to the right. At the Foot of this 
Hill we passed the Brook Letter B in Pickens Map 
about 8 Feet broad and runs with a brisk pace, 
murmuring like the rest of the Rivulets over Stones, 
the Meadow on both sides 100 yards wide but not 
so rich as some we have seen. Rising the opposite 
Hill we found at the Foot of it another Brook as 
large as Letter B, & afterwards passed many other 
streams and springs with a deep Hemloc Swamp. 
Some of these Rivulets descend under Ground and 
rise again at a Distance, great variety of Flowers 
in every Direction and plenty of a particular Species 
of Grass thought to be the small Plaintain or Sheep 
Grass of which our Horses are fond. 

After labor thro a long Hemloc Morass bordered 
on the River with a good but narrow Bottom we 
came to the Susquehannah and marked a Butternut 
Saplin for a Corner by the edge of the River in the 
said low Ground, standing between a Blac Birch a 
Linden and a Sugar Maple all marked, where the 
River bears S. 2° E. and is about 30 yards wide run- 
ning with a still but strong Current. The Length 
of this E. and West Side is 12 Miles 50 chains and 
50 Links. I tried to fish with Bacon Bait but caught 
Nothing. We encamped on the Borders of the 
River in the midst of a Shower and it was the first 
Time I ever slept in a Morass. The Timber on 

43 this 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

this part of the Susqueh h is mostly Elm and Sugar 
Maple; on the opposite Shore there is a Grove of 
Hemlocs and the Underbrush here as in many other 
Places is not very thick. 

22 nd W m Ridgway and myself went up to the 
Col sl with the Men and one Pack Horse leaving R. 
Wells Jos Biddle and John Hicks at the Corner 
Tent. We had a fatiguing Walk over Hills and 
Bogs and several Times wandered out of the Way 
and lost each other. At length Ridgway & myself 
found out the Oaksnee assisted by the Compass. 
The rapidity of this stream carried me off several 
yards till I happened to seize a Tree & escaped with 
the Loss only of one Shoe which the Violence of 
the Current took from my foot. The Oaksnee at 
this Spot is 12 or 15 yards broad and between 3 
and 4 Feet deep. We met M r Picken at the Oaksnee 
and he returned with us. I walked 4 or 5 Miles thro 
a rugged path with one Shoe and saw by the Way a 
Pheasants Nest with 7 Eggs of the same Color and 
Shape and Twice the Size of a Partridges Egg. The 
Land from our upper Corner to Col. Croghans 
House along the Susquehannah is in general but in- 
different, some deep Meadow & low Ground but far 
more which is rough & hilly. 

23 d M r Wells, Biddle and Hicks came to us at 
Col. Croghans; none of our yesterdays Party except 
one came in today; being rainy we staid here 
all day. 

24 th It rained again. The Elevated Hills and 
aspiring of this country seem to intercept the flying 

vapors 

1 Col. George Croghan. 

44 



TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

vapors and draw down more moisture than more 
humble places. So Nature wisely feeds the two 
great Rivers whose sources are here'; 1 we advanced 
N. W. along the Lake near a Mile into the woods 
with 3 carpenters felled a white Pine Tree and 
began a Canoe. Two men detached yesterday 
Morng. to seek out our lost Associates returned and 
brought in one only with a Chain and Keg; the 
other Two men with Pickens Son and the Pack 
Horse are still missing. 

The Lands seen today are like the rest covered 
with White Pines, Elm, Beech, Birch & so on, the 
Soil a gravelly Clay and Situation somewhat more 
level than usual with some Gullies & Runs of 
Water. We saw a few Hiccory and Oak Trees 
which are rare here. Some Trout were caught this 
Morng. 22 Inches long; they are spotted like ours 
with Yellow Bellies, yellow Flesh when boiled & 
wide mouths. There are Two species, the Common 
& the Salmon Trout. Some Chubs were likewise 
taken above a Foot in Length. The other Fish 
common in the Lake & other Waters, according: to 
Information are Pickerel, large and shaped like a 
Pike, Red Perch, Catfish reported to be upwards of 
Two feet long, Eels, Suckers, Pike, a few shad and 
some other Sorts not as yet perfectly known. The 
Bait now used is Pidgeons Flesh or Guts, for Worms 

are 

1 The author may refer here to the source of the Delaware as well as the 
Susquehanna, but the Delaware rises at Stamford, thirty miles distant in a 
straight line. Small streams tributary to the Mohawk descend the hills a 
few miles north of Otsego Lake ; but these latter are scarcely the source of 
the Mohawk. Doubtless the author had in mind the hill country in general 
in those parts, as the source of the Susquehanna and Delaware. 

45 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

are scarce. 1 The Land Frogs or Toads are very 
large, spotted with green and yellow, Bears and 
Deer are common ; I saw their Dung often and both 
the Species were seen by some of our Company. 2 

After Dinner M r Picken and another went out 
on a Scout after our lost Men. Two others also 
took a different Rout for the same Purpose. Mus- 
cetoes & Gnats are now troublesome. We observed 
a natural Strawberry Patch before Croghans Door 
which is at present in bloom, we found the Ground 
Squirrels and small red squirrels very numerous and 

1 approached near to one Rabbit whose Face ap- 
peared of a blac Colour. 

25 th We finished and launched our Canoe into 
the Lake. She is 32 Feet 7 Inches in Length and 

2 Feet 4 Inches broad ; the next Day we made oars 
and Paddles. 

26^ Our lost Party returned having been 4 

Days 

1 In 1773 the Settlers had procured a Sein which with a Canoe they drew 
across the Susquehanna. I happened to lodge one night, May 17, at their 
Fishing Hut, while several women amused themselves in catching fine Shad, 
Herring, Trout, Chub, and Succers. — R. S. 

2 In April 1777, being at John Sleeper's House on the Otego, he told 
me his Boys had taken 1 2 or 1 5 deer that winter near the House. They had 
placed a Steel Trap by the side of a Dead Cow wherein I saw a large she- 
wolf, sleek and plump, and the next Morning the same Trap secured a 
Raven. — R. S. 

John Sleeper was probably a son of Joseph Sleeper, a Quaker preacher 
from New Jersey, whom Mr. Smith induced to settle on the Otego tract. 
Joseph Sleeper was a man of many frontier accomplishments, being besides 
preacher a surveyor, mill-wright, carpenter, stone-mason, and blacksmith. 
He built the first saw and grist mill on the Otego patent, doing the work 
himself, and securing patrons from points as far distant as thirty miles. 
Brant was often a guest at his home. Some Seneca Indians, on their return 
from Cherry Valley, after the massacre, visited Sleeper's home,, and robbed 
it of food and clothing. Brant tried in vain to restrain them. 

46 



TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

Days & Nights in the Wilderness without Food ; 
they abandoned the pack Horse and Goods in the 
Woods. 

27* We are waiting for our goods. Picken was 
dispatched to Cherry Valley to hasten some Hands 
hired there ; we engaged Joseph Brant the Mohawk 
to go down with us to Aquahga. 1 Last Night a 
drunken Indian came and kissed Col. Croghan and 
me very joyously ; here are natives of different Na- 
tions almost continually ; they visit the Deputy Su- 
perintendent as Dogs to the Bone for what they can 
get. John Davies a young Mohawk, one of the 
Retinue, who has been educated at D r . Wheelocks 2 
School in Connecticut, now quitted our Service to 
march ag' the Catawbas 3 in company with a few of 
his Countrymen who take this long Tour merely to 
gratify revenge or Satiate Pride. 

We found many petrifyed Shells in these Parts & 
sometimes on the Tops of high Hills, & they seem 
on a transient Glance to be of the Marine Kind. 
Col. Croghan says he once found oyster shells on the 
Allegheny Mount 8 . He shewed us a piece of copper 

Ore 

1 More properly written Oghwaga. In the 1 8th century the name was 
spelled in almost every conceivable manner. Oghwaga, the most ancient and 
the largest Indian settlement on the Susquehanna, was closely identified with 
the Border Wars of the Revolution as a headquarters and base of supplies for 
the Indians. 

2 Rev. Dr. Elcazir Wheelock of Lebanon, Conn., where, under the pat- 
ronage of Sir William Johnson, many Indian boys besides Joseph Brant were 
educated. The school was afterwards removed to Concord, N. H., and out 
of it was eventually developed Dartmouth College. 

3 The Catawba Indians lived on the river of the same name in the Caro- 
linas. They had long been at enmity with the Iroquois, and with some of 
the southwestern tribes. With the white settlers they were friendly, and in 
the Revolution assisted the patriot cause. 

47 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

Ore as supposed. The Indian who gave it to him 
said he found it on our Tract. 1 We are told that 
Lake Camaduragy contains much Fish of the Kinds 
already noted. Col. C. says that some of his Cows 
were out in the Woods all last Winter without Hay 
and they now look well and a Man at the other 
Lake lost a Horse last Fall and found him this Spring 
in good order. Our Goods and Horse were recov- 
ered to day. The Colonel says he has sold his land 
back of Hardwick's Patent to sixty New England 
Families at 6/ an Acre and that some of them will 
settle on the Tract this Fall. 2 

The Col. had a Cargo of Goods arrived to day such 
as Hogs, Poultry, Crockery Ware and Glass. The 
settled Indian Wages here are 4/. a Day York Cur- 
rency, being Half a Dollar. 

28 th Sunday. I had an Opportunity of inspecting 
the Bark Canoes often used by the Natives ; these 
Boats are constructed of a single sheet of Bark 
stripped from the Elm, Hiccory or Chesnut, 1 2 or 
14 Feet long and 3 or 4 Feet broad and sharp at 
each End and these sewed with Thongs of the same 
Bark. In Lieu of a Gunnel they have a small Pole 
fastned with Thongs, sticks across & Ribs of Bark, 
and they deposit Sheets of Bark in her Bottom to pre- 
vent Breaches there. These vessels are very light, 
each broken and often patched with Pieces of Bark 
as well as corked with Oakum composed of pounded 
Bark. 

Col. 

1 1 found a transparent Stone there in 1773 which has much the appear- 
ance of polished Chrystal. — R. S. 

2 This settlement appears never to have been made. 

48 



TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

Col. C. says that Cap 1 Prevoost has sold some of 
his Lands at ^20, and some at ^40 p Hundred Acres 
(credat Inda?ns Apella non Ego). The Col. talks of 
building a Saw Mill and Grist Mill here on the Sus- 
quehannah near his House and has had a Millwright 
to view the Spot. 1 

29 th Myself with Joseph Brant his wife and 
Child and another Young Mohawk named James 
went down in the new Canoe to our upper Corner 
whilst the rest of the Company travelled by land. 
W m Ridgway and 3 others were detached to the 
Otego to take the courses of the Creek. Picken is to 
take the courses of the Susquehannah. This River 
from the Lake Otsego hither is full of Logs and 
Trees and short crooked Turns and the Navigation ?4>-^ 
for Canoes and Batteaux requires Dexterity. Ed. 



Croghan is about to employ the Indians in the useful 
service of removing the logs next summer. 2 My Two 
Mohawks brought me safe and without any Delay, 
save about an Hour that it took to cut away some 
Logs which crossed the stream and stopped the Pas- 
sage 






1 This was never done, but some Transient Travellers from Monmouth 
County N. Jersey, afterwards erected a good Bridge over the river, just 
where it issues from the Lake. — R. S. 

At this point the Susquehanna is still spanned by a bridge, which con- 
tinues eastward the main business street of Cooperstown. Just below the 
bridge, on both sides of the river, are the grounds in which stands the summer 
home of Bishop and Mrs. Henry C. Potter. 

2 In 1779 General James Clinton and his army, en route to join Sullivan 
in his expedition against the Indians, met with the same difficulties. He 
overcame them by building a dam across the river, which raised the waters of 
the lake two or three feet. He then released the waters by breaking the dam, 
so that his flotilla passed rapidly down the river to Tioga Point, a distance 
■of more than one hundred miles. 

49 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

sage totally till we cleared it by hard labor. 1 The 
current very rapid, the [bottom] commonly Gravel 
and the waters clear so that we saw many large Fish 
swimming up. The Indians strike them with Har- 
poons and sharp pointed sticks. Settingpoles are 
more used than Paddles. 

It is perhaps about Ten Miles from Croghans to 
our Upper Corner by Land and near 20 by Water ; 
the Oaksnee is not so large at the Mouth as the Sus- 
quehannah. I did not observe any large Creeks be- 
sides. The Lands along the River on either Hand 
are generally level and the greater Part might be 
made Meadow & some extraordinary good, particu- 
larly at the Mouth of the Oaksnee and several other 
Places where the Weeds and Grass were high and the 
Timber Butternut, Sugar Maple, Beech, Hemloc & 
many other Species. I saw divers Grape Vines, the 
Bunches were quite out and ready to blofsom. They 
appeared to be of the little blac winter Grape. A 
Young Bear was killed and eaten by our People. In 
the Evening Mess rs Wells and Biddle myself and an 
Indian struck off a South Westerly Course thro the 
Tract to examine it ; we travelled Two Miles and 
encamped ; it rained all Night. 

30 th We moved on very early and reached the 
Otego about Two oCloc at the Place where it is 
broken into several Branches forming Islands. The 
Creek just below is about 50 Feet broad running at 
present with much Velocity; it rained all Day. In 

the 

1 In May 1773, I carr i e d down a large loaded Batteau from the Head of 
Lake Otsego to the mouth of Otego, and then up that Creek [several] more 
miles, being probably the first white man that ever [navigated] that creek so. 
high.— R. S. 

5° 



TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

the Dawn of this Morng. I was waked up by the 
Yell of a wild Beast within ioo yards of our Tent, 
conjectured to be either a Wolf or Panther. 

The Otego here has a stony Bottom ; we walked 
down it near a Mile and in some places the Low 
Land on each Side is rich but narrow, exhibiting a 
great Variety of Plants Weeds and Vegetables and 
among the rest the Rasberry, Gooseberry, much 
Hellebore which is common all over the Low Lands 
& some of it is now near 3 Feet high, Water Grass 
and other Herbage. One Meadow is almost clear 
of Wood and ready for the Scythe. We could not 
well discover the Extent of the Meadows on the 
Western Banks of Otego, but they appeared to excel 
the Eastern which seldom were more than 100 
yards wide and now and then the Hills reached the 
Edge of the Water. The Islands are good & rich. 
These Parts are not much encumbered with Under 
Brush & the prevailing Woods are Elm, Blac Thorn 
and Button wood. 

We had taken an oblique Direction thro the 
Heart of the Patent, from the upper Corner to the 
Otego, guessed to be at least 1 4 Miles over 1 2 
extensive and exalted Hills forming all the Course 
save a few small Intervales not remarkable for Good- 
ness. In the Evening we steered across for Skeneves 
but soon built our Bark Shed and made our Fire as 
usual for the Night. The Indians have a convenient 
mode of carrying their Children. On a broad Board 
2 or 3 Feet long there are fastned Bindings of 
List, Cloth or Wampum which grow larger from 
the lower to the upper End in the Manner of a 
Partridge Net, with a Hoop at the Head. In this 

5 1 Kind 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

Kind of Basket they tye the Child with its Blanket 
or [Clothes] on. The Board has a Strap by which 
they Sling it on the Shoulders. Upon occasion they 
set the Board and Infant upright against a Tree or 
lay it out of the Way with little Trouble. They 
bind the Children too tight so as to swell the Face 
and make them uneasy. The Mother washes her 
Offspring often. It continues to be rainy Weather. 

31 st Yesterday I observed a Birds Nest on the 
Ground at the Foot of a Tree containing 3 Eggs of 
the same Colour, Size and Shape of the Robins 
Egg. I suppose they belong to the Swamp Robin 
who delights in Solitude, avoiding the Haunts of 
Mankind & whose chearful and sprightly Note in 
the dreary Wilderness often enlivens the weary 
Traveller. Yesterday also and before and after we 
discovered petrifyed Sea Shells at the Top of the 
Hill on the Roots of large Trees blown down and 
at the Bottom of Brooks. 

At 7 oCloc A. M. we decamped for Skeneves & 
hit the Susquehannah near 2 Miles below; then 
following the common Indian Path 1 we arrived at 
the Landing opposite to Yokums House at one 
oCloc: it is supposed to be about 6 Miles across 
from the Otego to Skeneves. Yokum says he has 
travelled often to Schoharie along a path the same 
which Col. Morris and the Duchess of Gordon 

lately 

1 This was the regular Susquehanna trail, one branch of which in these 
parts went to Otsego Lake and Cherry Valley, and another, following the 
Charlotte, crossed from Summit Lake to Schoharie, whence it ran to Fort 
Hunter and the Mohawk. Following this trail southward one met the 
Oneida trail at the mouth of the Unadilla River. Proceeding thence along the 
Susquehanna one could find his way to Chesapeake Bay. 

5 2 



TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

lately took on Horseback with their retinue; he 
thinks it is between 40 and 50 Miles and he has 
walked it in a day; that there is but one Creek and 
that is fordable and about 3 large Hills & has no 
Doubt but that a good Road may be opened for 
Carriages. 

Yokum (or Joachim Falkenberg) 1 has lived here 
with his Family 4 years, he is a Dutchman but 
speaks good English, pays no Rent as yet to Liv- 
ingston, built the House, but found the Orchard 
already planted by the Indians who also planted one 
at the Mouth of Otego. The Pheasants are plen- 
tiful. Of those we saw one had 8 or 9 young ones; 
they are said to be fond of Beech nuts wherein these 
Parts abound. 

The Course we took yester evening and to day 
from Otego was about E. by S.; we passed 5 High 
and long Hills constituting nearly the whole Dis- 
tance. These Hills are for the most Part tillable; 
much Small Slate Stone on the Surface of the Soil 
covered sometimes by that dark mould which is de- 
rived from putriried Leaves and Vegetables; there 
are a few Flats but the Bone is more plentiful than 
the Flesh. We traversed one or more Hills sup- 
posed to be the Corner of Letter F. in Pickens Map 
or of that Nature; this Part sustains a few large 
White Pines and a little Brush but most of it has 
been destroyed by Fire and the Soil is stony in 
Clay, very barren & good for little except the Slopes 

of 

1 Joachim Van Valkenberg, whose family for forty years had been settled 
in the Mohawk Valley, came to this place in 1765. In the Border Wars he 
was a noted scout. In 1781 he was killed in a battle on Summit Lake. 

53 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

of Hills which produced Rasberries Strawberries, 
Blaeberries and other Fruits and Flowers but Lime- 
stone seems to abound. 1 

Along this Tour Beech is the Master Wood as 
Oak is in Pennsylvania ; this is nearly equalled by 
the Sugar Maple, nor is there any Want of Elm, 
Linden, Iron Wood, Some Chesnut, a few Blac, 
red and White Oak, Shell bark, Hiccory, together 
with Button wood, Ash, Hemloc, White Pine, 
Birch, Wild Cherry, Blac Thorn, Butternut and 
others. The Hemloc grow mostly in Swamps but 
sometimes in Groves on the Upland; the White 
Pine is scattered here and there; the Button Wood 
Blac Thorn and Butternut are to be found chiefly in 
Marsh and low Grounds and along the Sides of 
Creeks & the River; the rest grow indifferently on 
the Mountains & Valleys. The Trees are ever tall 
and lofty, sometimes 200 Feet high and strait, but 
not proportionally large in Circumference, except 
some white Pines and a few particular Trees of 
other Kinds which are both long and bulky. 2 

The Underbrush is in some Places very thick; in 
others one may almost ride in a chair. The Woods 
are in many Parts blocked up with fallen Trees, so 
that it was a wearisome Pilgrimage for me. My 
Companions bore it better. The whole Country is 
well watered by Creeks Brooks & Springs. 

In 

1 This Letter F was thought too unprofitable to be divided with the rest 
among the Owners ; so it remains, about 2,000 acres in Quantity, the 
Common Property of all concerned in the Patent. — R. S. 

2 Some years afterwards fohn Sleeper and myself measured a Birch Tree 
growing in his Meadow on the Border of Otego Creek, and found it 26 feet 
in Circumference. — R. S. 

54 



TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

In the Afternoon we went over the River to 
Yokums House; the Susquehannah is fordable at this 
spot. The Orchard planted by the Natives is irreg- 
ular and not in rows ; some Trees are a few Feet & 
some many Yards asunder & they are at present in 
Blofsom. I discerned one Morella cherry among 
them ; they are middle sized & look healthy and vig- 
orous. We have cold Weather for the Season and 
Rain again to-day. Skeneves Creek was so termed 
from an Indian of that Name who formerly lived 
there. The Indian Graves in the Orchard are not 
placed in any regular Order nor shaped in one 
Fashion. One of them was a flat Pyramid of about 
3 Feet high trenched round ; another was flatted like 
a Tomb and a Third something like our Form. 
Here is level, rich Pasture Land cleared long since 
by the Indians Sc the remains of their Corn Hills yet 
to be seen. Yokum's Mare looks in good order and 
has been out in the Woods all winter but there is 
now good pasture of our common Grass in the cleared 
Parts. 

The Indians of Aquhaga, Otsiningo (or as the 
Maps spell them Ononchquage and Osewingo) 
and other places below have a Path along the Sus- 
quehannah on the West side to Skeneves where they 
ford the River and have their Path on the East side 
up to Cherry Valley ; the River here may be 25 
Yards over at present a rapid Stream and there is a 
dangerous Passage occasioned by Logs a Quarter of a 
Mile below where Two Canoes lately overset and a 
white Child was drowned. Many People are passing 
this Way to view the Country. Yokums Indian Corn 
is planted but not yet come up. He says he com- 

55 monly 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

monly raises very good Corn with the Hoe only hav- 
ing but lately procured a Plow. He has a small 
Garden. The Indians are not troublesome to Him 
tho they often call at his House; he has sown no 
Wheat or Rye, obtains his Necessaries chiefly from 
Cherry Valley, but would rather from Schoharie if 
the Road was opened. Col. Morris and the Duchefs 
lodged 3 Nights at his House 2 or 3 weeks ago, with 
a large Train of Attendants ; they went over to view 
their Tract at Unadella or as some call it Tuna- 
derrah. 1 

Here we met with one Dorn a Dutchman with 
his Family from Conejoharie going to settle at 
Wywomoc; he informs us That he bought of the 
Proprietors of Pennsylvania 300 acres chiefly Flats 
for ^5 sterling p Hundred to be paid in 15 years 
without Interest and a Penny an Acre sterls Quit Rent 
payable annually; That 130 Families from his 
Neighborhood on the Mohawks River have actually 
bought there and are about to remove, his Family 
being the second, the Man who lost his Child here 
the first ; 2 that he has travelled from Sopus to 
Depues on the Delaware, 3 a good Waggon Road 

& one 

1 Other forms of this word in contemporary writings are Tunadilla, Tian- 
adorha, Cheonadilla and Teyonadelhough. 

2 By Wywomoc is meant the Wyoming Valley. These families from the 
Mohawk represented a migration independent of the one from Connecticut 
and essentially hostile to it. By " the Proprietors of Pennsylvania " the 
author means the Penn party between whom and the Connecticut settlers 
conflicts were springing up which are known in history as the Pennamite 
Wars. In 1775 some forty of these families from the Mohawk (Dutch and 
Scotch-Irish) were expelled from Wyoming by the Yankees. The resent- 
ment thus caused became one of the contributory motives for the massacre of 
1778. 

3 Above the Water-gap whence the route lay past the Pocono Mountains. 

56 



TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

& one may go it on Horseback in Two Days. From 
Depues to Wywomoc are 30 Miles, a Foot path but 
may be rode very well on a Horse; 40 miles from 
Wywomoc to Bethlehem at present a Foot path but 
they are soon to make a Waggon Road ; that he has 
been on the Delaware 1 5 or 20 miles above Cookoose 
and 1 5 below that. They were obliged to carry the 
Canoe 5 Times and the last Time above a Mile & 
a half, thinks he should have been lost if it had not 
been for the assistance of his Indians on the Rocks 
and Falls in those Parts ; that 1 5 miles below the 
Cookoose one Decker lived 1 who traded to Philad a 
in a large Durham Boat 2 so that from thence it is 
passable ; it was 1 o years since he was here. 3 They 
call it 20 Miles from Yokums House to Cherry 
Valley ; his Son goes and returns on Horseback in 
One Day between Sun & Sun. 4 The Canoe we had 
built at the Lake being gone up for Provisions for 
the Use of the Surveyors our Indians Joseph Brant 
6c James set about building a Bark Canoe. 

June 1. 1769. We found it very cold last Night 
& observed high Hills all round Yokums House at 
a small Distance. Mess rs Wells and Biddle this Day 
marked out a Path to the intended Store House on 
the Creek Onoyarenton. 5 Joseph discovered a 

Rattle 

1 At the mouth of the East Branch, or what is now Hancock. 

2 The boat referred to in the Introduction as used for the shipment of 
grain from points on the upper Delaware. 

3 In the sequel we met with none of these Difficulties on the Delaware ; 
nor is it probable that any White Person ever dwelt between Cookose and 
Cushietunk. — R. S. 

4 I have found it a moderate day's Journey from my house in Otego to 
Cherry Valley by the foot of Lake Otsego. — R. S. 

5 Now written Oneonta. The village of that name is the largest town 
on the Susquehanna above Binghamton. The word means a stony place. 

57 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

Rattle Snake not far from the Tent and called for 
me to view it. The Snake lay quiet till we pro- 
voked him to rattle for Some Time and then James 
ran a sharp Stick thro his Head. He was about 3^ 
Feet long, small at the Neck and Tail and thick in 
the Middle. His Back was of a brown Hue spotted 
with dusky red and yellow, his Belly of a bright 
Yellow slightly spotted ; he had 12 Rattles, a large 
Mouth and Two very sharp Teeth, one on each Side 
of the Upper Jaw & these it is said he can draw 
back at his Pleasure; he did not attempt to bite 
tho we stood about him for some Minutes — probably 
the coolnefs of the weather benumbed him. This 
was the only Rattle Snake I ever saw alive. 

This Evening our Bark Canoe being finished, at 
y z after 5 oCloc myself, Joseph Brant his Wife and 
Child embarked in Her with some Loading and 
M r Wells with James the other Indian in a small 
Wood Canoe containing most of the Indians Bag- 
gage and our own. We first walked down the path 
about Half a Mile to avoid the bad Passage before 
mentioned, Jos. Biddle going so far to see us on 
board. Thus we parted from our tent at the landing 
opposite to Skevenes, or Yokum's, now on our 
return homewards. We paddled down stream two 
hours, and enjoying a fine serene Evening as we 
descended the stream about 10 Miles to a Bark Hut 
where we found a Fire burning. There was but 
one other carrying place and the man said we might 
have well passed that as they in the canoe came safe 
through. We passed the Adiquetinge 1 on the left 

& the 

1 Now the Charlotte, which early settlers were in the habit of pronouncing 
Shalott. Sir William Johnson, on receiving a patent to an extensive tract 
bordering on this river, changed the name to Charlotte as a compliment to 

58 



TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

& the Onoyarenton on the Right. The first appeared 
to be abo! 40 Feet broad at the Mouth with rich 
Bottom on each Side, the latter a very small Creek 
not more than 12 or 15 Feet over. There are many 
Islands and all low good Bottom particularly a large 
one below the Adiquetinge very fine. We found 
some good Bottoms on our Side down to the Begin- 
ning of Sir W m Johnsons Land and some Intervale 
but divers great barren Hills good for little. 

We took Notice of Sir Williams Tract on 
each Side of the River and he likewise has his 
Portion of Mountainous Lands with Spots of good 
Meadow wider and more considerable on the East 
Side than on the West. We could not know the 
Breadth of some of the Flats with any Accuracy 
when they were broad because we sat low in our 
diminutive Vessels and slid expeditiously along. 

2 d The Cold last Night and for several Nights 
past was extreme for the Season so that I could not 
sleep well notwithstanding a rousing Fire, a Blanket, 

Great Coat and Bear Skin. The Place where we 

*■ 

slept was an extensive Flat whereof a Patch was 
bare of Wood and overrun with Fern (the Filix 
Florida of the Botanists) a finer sort than ours, Two 
and Three Feet high. Much of this & other Sorts 
of Fern are dispersed over the Country; the May 
Apple, Hellebore and many more Herbs and Weeds 
are to be seen including Wild Balm, Wild Onions 
or rather a large kind of Garlic whose bulb is of 
the size of a Musket Bullet which is very common 
and of this the Butter at M r Croghan's tasted strong, 

and 

the Queen of George III. After the Revolution, the heirs of Sir William 
having been loyalists, the Charlotte Valley lands were confiscated by the state. 

59 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

and including also wild Columbine, Nettles and 
Honeysuckles. 

A Bear came this Morning near to us & was pur- 
sued by Brant and his Dog who after some Chase 
brought him in. This Mohawk it seems is a con- 
siderable Farmer possessing Horses and Cattle and 
ioo acres of rich Land at Canejoharie. 1 He says 
the Mohawks have lately followed Husbandry 
more than formerly, and that some Hemloc 
Swamps when cleared will produce good Timothy 
Grafs. In his Excursion after the Bear he says he 
was on the Onoyarenton and saw some good Flats 
there. 

In an Hour after our Departure we arrived at the 
old Field 2 near the Mouth of Otego where we met 
W™ Ridgway who finished traversing that Creek 
yesterday Evening ; he makes the exact Length of the 
Otego according to its various Windings. — (R. Wells 
has taken a Copy of the Courses & Distances) 

We landed and walked half a Mile along the Path 
to the old Field and from thence it is about Half a 
Mile to the Mouth of Otego. We dined here in Com- 
pany with M r William Harper and M r Campbell 3 the 
Surveyor who are now running out Harpers Patent. 

Ridgeway 

1 Brant's house in Canajoharie was a frame structure 14x16 feet in size. 
The cellar wall was standing as late as 1878. Here Brant once had as his 
guest a missionary named Theophilus Chamberlain, who said afterwards that 
Brant was " exceeding kind." 

2 Originally called Wauteghe, a corruption of which is the modern Otego. 
Here had existed a rather large Indian village. An orchard extended along 
the northern side of the river. 

3 Harper and Campbell were from Cherry Valley. The former served as 
a captain in the Border Wars, and was living in Cherry Valley at the time 
of the massacre. 

60 



TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

Ridgeway & Hicks were likewise present. This field 
has been formerly planted by the Indians with Corn 
and Apple Trees ; a few of the latter remain scattered 
about and are now in Bloom & intermixed with 
Aspens & other wild Trees with Rasberries and 
Blackberries & there are Quantities of Strawberry 
vines in Blofsom. The Soil is fit for the Plow and 
tolerably level but surrounded by Hills and on the 
other side of Susquehannah are high Ridges in 
Appearance of little value. 

The Point on the East side of Otego is good but 
there is not much of it; on the West Mouth there 
is more but we did not go over. The Otego is here 
but narrow and fordable for Horses. The Susque- 
hannah may be about 50 yards over. Sir W m John- 
son's Tract on each side of the River hither con- 
tinues hilly with some intervales and small rich 
pieces, the Hills very high and I think not til- 
lable in general. The Low Lands on the West 
Side of Otego are thought to excel those on the 
East. 1 W. Ridgway saw Yesterday Indians who had 
just taken Two young Beavers alive in the Otego. 
Numbers of Saplins are cut off by these animals. 
Wild Hops grow here in Plenty said to answer the 
Purposes of Garden Hops. 

In 3 Hours & 3 Quarters from the Mouth of 
Otego we reached a Place on the East shore where 
we encamped. Many parts of these shores have 
choice Bottoms flanked at a little Distance by mode- 
rate Mountains with some even upland; in some 
Places the Hills reached the Water, in [some] of 

these 

1 This has since been found true. — R. S 

6l 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

these we are told that King Fishers breed in the 
Bank. The Path to Ahquhaga is very near the 
River mostly; the widest Bottoms appeared to me 
to be from the Otego downwards on either shore 
for 3 or 4 Miles. These little Canoes as ballasted 
carry us very well. The Islands in the River are all 
rich. We saw no Creek of Note this Afternoon but 
were incommoded by Muscetoes. We imagine Sir 
W m has at least one Third good Ground exclusive 
of Elevations. 1 This was a line clear Day and warm. 

Joseph being unwell took some Tea of the Sassa- 
frass Root and slept in the open Air but was not 
much better next Morning. 

3 d Harper told us Yesterday that Sir W m has some 
Hemloc Swamps cleared which produce plenty of 
good grass. The Distance from the Mouth of Otego 
to the Mouth of Unadella 2 is according to Harper & 
Campbell 16 Miles and from thence to Ahquhaga 
28. Yesterday we came slower on account of Jo- 
seph's illness and the water for some miles less rapid. 
We set out about 7 oCloc and in Two Hours we ar- 
rived at a small village of Mohiccons consisting of 2 
houses on the right hand and 3 on the Left, a Mile 

above 



1 Besides his patent to the Valley of the Charlotte, Sir William, as already- 
stated, was owner of Susquehanna Valley lands — two miles on each side 
from the mouth of the Charlotte to the mouth of the Unadilla. The title 
subsequently (in 1770) passed into the hands of several men in New York 
City, chief among whom were Alexander and Hugh Wallace. The patent 
is still known as Wallace's. Both Wallaces became Tories, but their lands 
escaped confiscation thro having passed into the possession of Gouldsborough 
Banyar, whose attitude during the war was one of clever neutrality. He 
long survived the conflict, spending his last days in Albany as a blind old 
man whom a faithful negro was often seen piloting about the streets. 

2 Written Tunaderra in the original draft. 

62 



TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

above Unadella. 1 Here we went on shore and per- 
ceived the Huts to be wretched and filled with Wo- 
men and Children. They have Cows & Hogs & a 
little Land cleared with a Garden fenced in & In- 
dian corn planted very slovenly. Among the Grass, 
the Cows were large and fat. I saw no fruit Trees 
except wild ones. The low Lands to the Unadella 
from several Miles above it are more extensive than 
any we have seen and as far up that Creek as we 
could discern they were low & fine yet bounded 
back by the same range of High Lands on each 
Hand. We passed many Islands & all good. 

At this village we left our Wood Canoe and en- 
gaged a good looking old Indian named Una to take 
us down in his Canoe and pilot us over to the Dela- 
ware which is his Hunting Country. He took a 
Quarter of an Hour to drefs Himself his Wife and 
little Son and then we all embarked. These Vil- 
lagers could not speak English. The Unadella or 
Tunaderrah is large being 60 or 70 yards broad at 
the Mouth and here we enter the Indian Territory 2 
not as yet ceded to the English. 

At one oCloc we arrived at an Oneida Village of 
4 or 5 Houses called the Great Island or Cunna- 
hunta, 3 the Men were absent but a Number of pretty 
Children amused themselves with shooting Arrows at 
a Mark. The Houses resembled great old Barns. 

We 

1 That is, a mile above the confluence, three of these houses being in what 
is now Sidney, and two in the township of Unadilla. 

2 Here the Fort Stanwix line, coming down the Unadilla from the north, 
crossed the Susquehanna and thence went over the hills to the Delaware at 
Cookooze. 

3 Near the present village of Afton, Chenango County. 

63 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

We dressed some Pork on the shore for Dinner and 
staid only Half an Hour. There are fine Islands and 
lowlands about Cunnahunta & yet between the Un- 
adella &c this there is much indifferent Soil. The 
Trees seem rather smaller than above. A Number 
of Ravens on One of the burnt barren Hills saluted 
us with their hoarse Croakings. The River now 
becomes wider. 1 Our Squaw in the Canoe suckles 
her son tho he seems to be between 2 and 3 
years old. We saw Two Apple Trees before a Door 
of this Village and some of the Islands are a little 
cleared. The Master wood along Shore from the 
Unadilla is maple and in higher Ground Beech. 

Forty minutes after 3 oCloc we passed by 2 Indian 
Houses on the left and just before us saw some In- 
dians setting Fire to the Woods. Here are many 
Islands 6c one of them large, quite cleared and full 
of fine & high Grass. Much of the Upland here- 
abouts has been burnt & looks something like a set- 
tled Country. Several single Huts are seated on rich 
Spots & some are now building Houses and Apple 
Trees are seen by some of these Huts. The River 
yet has its Rapids where we slide fast along. 

At 5 oCloc we entered Ahquhaga an Oneida 
Town of 1 5 or 16 big Houses on the East side and 
some on the West side of the Susquehanna just at 
the Moment of the Transit of Venus, which M r . 
Wells observed with a Telescope he bought for 
that purpose. We took our Lodgings with the 
Rev. M r Ebenezer Moseley a Presbyterian Mis- 
sionary 

1 In consequence of the large accessions made to its waters by the Una- 
dilla River and several smaller streams. 

64 



TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

sionary from Boston 1 who has an Interpreter named 
James Dean. Moseley enjoys a Salary of ^ioo 
Sterling and Dean ^50 Sterlg. allowed by the Com- 
missioners at Boston. The former has resided here 
3 years and the latter 9 years. M' Dean says the 
Distance from Ahquhaga to Unadella is 25 Miles & 
from Ahquhaga to Otsiningo 2 across by Land 18, 
and by Water 40, the River making a large Turn. 3 

There are some good Islands opposite to this Vil- 
lage which has a suburb over the River on the 
Western Side. Here is a small wooden Fortress 
built some years ago by Cap! Wells of Cherry Valley 
but now used as a Meeting House. 4 

The Habitations here are placed straggling with- 
out any order on the Banks. They are composed of 
clumsy hewn Timbers & hewn Boards or Planks. 
You first enter an inclosed Shed or Portus which 
serves as a Wood house or Ketchin and then the Body 
of the Edifice consisting of an Entry thro upon the 
Ground of about 8 Feet wide on each side whereof 
is a Row of Stalls or Births resembling those of Horse 
Stables, raised a Foot from the Earth, 3 or 4 on 
either side according to the Size of the House, 
Floored and inclosed round, except the Front, and 

covered 

1 He has since turned Merchant. — R. S. 

Mr. Moseley (Eleazer was his first name) was the last but three of many- 
missionaries sent to Oghwaga between 1748 and 1770. The mission was 
maintained by the Boston commissioners of the Society in Scotland for Propa- 
gating the Gospel. James Dean in 1769 had been employed there under 
several successive missionaries. 

2 Otseningo was an Indian village further down the Susquehanna near 
Binghamton. 

3 At this point there is now a village called Great Bend. 

4 This fort was built in 1756, from plans prepared in Albany, under 
orders from Sir William Johnson. 

6s 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

covered on the Top. Each Stall contains an entire 
Family so that 6 or more families sometimes reside 
together, the Sisters with their Husbands and 
Children uniting while the Father provides them 
a Habitation; thus Brant & his Wife did not lodge 
with her Father who was a Priest & a Principal 
Man, but with her Sisters. The fire is made in the 
Middle of the Entry and a Hole is left in the Roof 
for the Smoke to escape for there is neither chimney 
nor window ; consequently the place looks dark and 
dismal. The House is open as a Barn, save the Top 
of the Stalls which serve to contain their lumber by 
way of Garret. Beams are fixed Lengthways across 
the house, and on one of these, over the Fire, they 
hang their wooden Pot Hooks & cook their Food. 
Furniture they have little ; the Beds are dirty 
Blankets. The stalls are about 8 Feet long & 5 
deep and the whole House perhaps from 30 to 50 
Feet in length by 20 wide, filled too often with 
Squalor & Nastiness. Almost every House has a 
Room at the End opposite to the Ketchin serving as 
a larder for Provision ; there are no cellars. The 
Roofs are no other than Sheets of Bark fastned 
crossways and inside to Poles by way of Rafters. 
Upon the Outside are split Logs which keep the 
Roof on ; they are Pitch Roofs and it is about 8 Feet 
from the Ground to the Eves of the House, and this 
is said to be the general Form of building their 
Houses and Towns throughout the 6 Nations. At 
Ahquhaga each house possesses a paltry Garden 
wherein they plant Corn, Beans, Water Melons, Po- 
tatoes Cucumbers, Muskmelons, Cabbage, French 
Turneps, some Apple Trees, Sallad, Parsnips, & 

66 other 




FOl'R INDIAN POTENTATES OF NEW YORK 



(0 Tee Yee Neen HoCa Row, Emperor 

nf the Six Nations. 
(3) Saga Yeath Qua Pieth Tow, King of 

the Maquas, or Mohawks. 



(2) ETOW Oh Koam, kiiii; of the River 

Indians, or Mohicans. 

(.() Ho Nee Yeath Taw No Row, King 

of the Generethgarichs, or Canajoharies. 



From portraits painted in London by I. Verelst in 1710, during a visit of these Indians with 

Peter Schuyler to Queen Anne 
On the margin of other portraits made in London at the same time, these Indians are described as 
"the four kings of India who on the 2 May 1710 were admitted by her Majesty the Queen of Great 
Britain praying assistance against the French in America, between New England and Canada." 



TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

other Plants. There are now Two Plows in the 
Town together with cows, Hogs, Fowls and Horses 
which they sell cheap but they never had any Sheep, 
and it is but of late that they have provided Hay for 
their Winter stock. Their Fences are miserable and 
the Land back of the village very indifferent. We 
found the Inhabitants civil and sober. 

4 th Sunday, in the Morning we attended Mess" 
Mosely & Dean to Divine Service which was con- 
ducted with regularity and Solemnity. They first 
sang a Psalm, then read a Portion of Scripture and 
after another Psalm Moseley preached a sermon (in a 
chintz Night Gown) and the Business was concluded 
by a Third Psalm. The Congregation consisted of 
near ioo Indians, Men, Women and Children includ- 
ing the chief of the Tuscarora Town 3 miles below 
with some of his People & they all behaved with 
exemplary devotion. The Indian Priest named Isaac 
sat in the Pulpit, and the Indian clerk, Peter, below 
him, 1 this Clerk repeated the Psalm in the Oneida 
Language and the people joined in the Melody with 
Exactness and Skill, the Tunes very lively & agree- 
able. The Sermon delivered in English was repeated 
in Indian by Dean, sentence by sentence. The Men 
sat on Benches on one Side of the House and the 
Women on the other. Before Meeting a Horn is 
sounded 3 several Times to give Notice. 

Ahquhaga 

1 Isaac Dakayenensese and Peter Agwrondougwas, whom Elihu Spencer 
had converted at Oghwaga during his work there in 1748. Peter, otherwise 
known as " Good Peter," was a chief of the Oneidas. He was born on the 
Susquehanna, and had fame as an orator. He survived the Revolution, and 
in 1792 John Trumbull painted a portrait of him in miniature which may 
still be seen at Yale University. 

67 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

Ahquhaga contains about 140 Souls and the Tus- 
carora Town about the same Number. At the last 
named Place there is a Shad Fishery common to the 
people of Ahquhaga also ; they tye Bushes together 
so as to reach over the River, sink them with Stones 
& hawl them round by Canoes ; all persons present in- 
cluding strangers, such is their laudable Hospitality 
have an equal Division of the Fish. They reckon 
the Distance from Ahquhaga to Wialoosin 1 100 
Miles and from thence to Wywomoc 60, which last 
is the same with Wyoming. 

In the Afternoon we attended the Service again ; 
this was performed by the Indian Priest in the 
Oneida Language. He began by a Prayer. Then they 
sang a Psalm, the Tune whereof was long with many 
Undulations, then a prayer and a second Psalm, fol- 
lowed by an Exhortation, repeating Part of what 
Moseley had said in the Morning with his own Com- 
ments upon it and reading sometimes out of a Book, 
here being several Books in the Indian Language. 2 
He finished the Service with a Benediction. He and 
his clerk were dressed in Blac Coats. Isaac is the 
chief here in religious affairs, and his Brother a stout 
fat man, in civil, like Moses and Aaron. This last 
fell asleep while his Brother was preaching but 
assisted in singing with a loud and hoarse voice. 
These Brothers and other Chiefs came to visit us 
very kindly. Some of the Women wear Silver 

Broaches 

1 Wyalusing, which means the home of the old warrior. 

2 In the original manuscript at this point appears the following in paren- 
theses: "Mr. Wicwise here to-day. This spring he bought 1,000 acres 
twentv-five miles below Wyoming of John Allen for ^500, and next day 
was offered ^200 for his bargain." 

68 









a. 



tjsnjt- 




A PAGE OF THE ORIGINAL MANUSCRIPT 

ILLUSTRATING, BY COMPARISON WITH THE ADJOINING TEXT, THE 

CHANGES MADE KY RICHARD SMITH IN HIS TRANSCRIPT 

Reproduced in facsimile from Mr. Smith's original Journal, owned fry 

J. Francis Coad, of Charlotte Hall, Maryland 



TOUR OF THE SUSQUEHANNA 

Broaches each of which passes for a Shilling and are 
as current among the Indians as Money. Brant's 
wife had several Tier of them in her Dress to the 
amount perhaps of 10 or ^15. 



69 



IV 



THE DELAWARE; BY INDIAN TRAIL FROM OLD 
OGHWAGA TO COOKOOZE ; THENCE BY CANOE TO 
BURLINGTON, 236 MILES, JUNE 5-JUNE I O, 1769 

5 th At Nine oCloc We quitted Ahquhaga and 
arrived at the Mohawks Branch of Delaware 20 Min- 
utes before Six having rested an Hour and Half at 
Dinner. 1 It is computed by M? Dean to be 15 
Miles across. NL T . Wells conjectures it to be 13 or 
14. The Course along a blind Indian Path is 
E. S. E. and the Delaware at this Place nearly North 
and South about 70 or 80 yards over, less rapid than 
most parts of the Susquehannah & fordable with a 
Stoney Bottom not deeper than 3 or 4 Feet. Here 
are Two Huts of Delaware Indians who live most 
wretchedly, yet have better Corn than the Oneidas 
& more of it being now 4 Inches high and planted 
in a slovenly Manner. The Path from Ahquhaga 

to 

1 This route long remained the chief highway between the two rivers. 
Cookooze, a word intended to represent the sound made by an owl in hooting, 
and corrupted into Cook House, owes its present name of Deposit to the 
fact that it became to Susquehanna pioneers a convenient point at which to 
deliver lumber for shipment down the Delaware; the Susquehanna, because ot 
its greater length, tortuous course, and shallow waters, being undesirable. 
Here seventy years ago was broken the first ground for the Erie Railway. A 
monument commemorating that event was erected at Deposit in November, 
1905. The name Deposit was officially adopted in 1814. Three miles 
further down the river is a place once called Cooke-ooze-Sapoze, meaning little 
owl's nest. Owls formerly were numerous in the dark woods on the south 
side of the river at Deposit. 

7° 



TOUR OF THE DELAWARE 

to Cookoose, so is this place stiled, (the Word in 
the Delaware dialect signifies an Owl) is in many 
parts blocked up by old Trees and Brush ; the Coun- 
try is hilly, but of very large Hills there are only 2 
to travel over, one of which might be avoided and 
on the side of the other a Road might readily be cut. 
This last is bare of Trees & affords an extensive Pros- 
pect. M! Wells & myself both think it practicable 
to make a good Waggon Road from one River to 
the other hereabouts. 

Our Company, consisted of M r Dean, Una the 
Mohiccon & James the Mohawk, with 2 Horses one 
to carry our Baggage and one I rode, for my Com- 
panion chose to walk. We hired them of the Indians 
at Ahquhaga for a Dollar p Horse the Trip that is 
one Day going & another in returning. We travelled 
slowly. A few times I got off the horse and led him : 
otherwise tolerable riding. The Oneidas and most 
other Indians are said to be extortionate and very 
apt to ask high Prices especially when they perceive 
a Necessity for their Assistance. Perhaps they 
learned this from the Dutch. We are to give Una 
5 Dollars for his service from Unadilla down to 
Cushietunk. He procured a Canoe at the Delaware 
immediately and we went over to the East side and 
encamped. We had bought a few curiosities of In- 
dian Manufacture at Ahquhaga, among which a Pair 
of embroidered Moccisons cost 10/. Una procured 
a canoe immediately and we went over to the East 
side and encamped. 

We found the first Half of this Rout not only 
hilly but full of stones and almost barren. As we 
approached the Delaware however the Lands seemed 

71 better 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

better. The Timber still continues to be chiefly- 
Beech Hemloc, Sugar Maple, Chesnut and a few 
Oaks and Hiccories & others. The Indians make 
Maple Sugar and have some to sell. The Delaware 
here is encompassed with Hills each side but these 
Two Families possess a good Flat on the East Side 
and in their corn field we are now encamped. We 
observed today that the Indians either thro Acci- 
dent or Design have burnt large Spaces in the Woods. 
We passed a small Creek at divers Times which emp- 
ties into the Delaware above the Cookooze & indeed 
the Waters seemed to incline to this River for above 
Half Way over. 1 

6 th It rained last Night and this Morng. and we 
recollected the account of certain Distances given by 
M? Spencer of Cherry Valley 2 who said he had trav- 
elled 

1 Since the Commencement of the present War, Ahquhaga has been de- 
stroyed and the Indians driven entirely away from Susquehanna. A flour- 
ishing Settlement of whites at Unadella has also experienced the like Cal- 
amity, wherein great Quantities of grain perished. This was before General 
Sullivan burned the Indian Towns between Susquehanna and Niagara. — R. S. 

Unadilla in 1776 was a flourishing white settlement, but Brant in that 
year drove the settlers out and it then became a headquarters and base of sup- 
plies for hostile Indians commanded by him. In the summer of 1778 Gov- 
ernor George Clinton was informed that "Unadilla has always been, and 
still continues to be, a common receptacle for all rascally Tories and run-a- 
way Negroes." Oghwaga and Unadilla, # where several hundred of the 
enemy were then supposed to be living, was destroyed in October of that 
year by Col. William Butler with some Scotch-Irish troops and a detach- 
ment from Morgan's Riflemen, in all 260 men, who went out from Scho- 
harie, where, with a larger force, they had been stationed. Butler found both 
places deserted, and everything " in the greatest disorder," indicating a speedy 
flight. He burned the two settlements, — not only the houses, but their con- 
tents, and upwards of 4,000 bushels of grain, taking back with him 49 
horses and 52 horned cattle. He described Oghwaga as "the finest Indian 
town I ever saw." 

2 Thomas Spencer, a half breed, who was famous as an orator and served 
as interpreter on the patriot side, was killed at the battle of Oriskany. 

72 



TOUR OF THE DELAWARE 

elled this Rout, namely, from Otego to Unadella 26 
Miles, to Cunnahunta 16, to Ahquhaga 12, to 
Cookoose 12, to the Forks of Popaghton 15, to 
Cushietunk 20, to the Minisinks 40, Length of the 
Minisinks 40, to Durham 44, in all 225 miles. We 
paid James the Mohawk half a Dollar p Day. The 
Indian Custom, probably derived from the Dutch, 
is to be paid for the time of returning as well as 
going. 1 

6 th June. At Half after 6 oCloc we departed from 
Cookoose down the Delaware. At Half after 9 
oCloc we came to the Mouth of Popaghton. 2 At 4 
oCloc we reached the first Settlement 3 in Cheshietunk 4 
and at 5 oCloc we came to the Station Point be- 
tween N. York and N. Jersey. Popaghton is about 
as large as the Mohawks Branch, which to Cushie- 
tunk is in general not so crooked as the Susque- 
hannah and has a stony Bottom mostly shallow so that 
in some Places our Canoe could just conveniently 
pass over, but by the marks on the Shore the Water 
is sometimes 3 or 4 Feet higher. The Navigation at 
present is pretty good, but when the water is very 
low perhaps impracticable. 

There is a Range of high Hills on either Hand 

from 

1 In the original manuscript, but not in the transcript, is this statement : 

" To-morrow they [begin to] open a wagon road from Cushietunk to 
Sopus, 70 miles. Sopus is their best way to market." 

2 Here now stands the village of Hancock, its Indian name, Chehocton(in 
a Hardenberg deed of 1 7 5 1 , the place is called Shokakeen), being a Dela- 
ware word meaning the union of streams, or the confluence. In early times 
it was written Shehaw kin. 

3 This point was probably about where Callicoon now is. Callicoon, 
which on a map of 1828 is written Kolli Kolen, has been derived from a 
Delaware word Gulukocksoon, meaning a turkey. 

4 Now written Cochecton, which means low ground. 

73 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

from Cookoose to Popaghton and some small Pieces 
of good low Land here and there, but from the latter 
down to Cushietunk hardly any, for it is all hilly, 
stoney, broken, barren and little worth. The Timber 
down to Popaghton is mostly Beech, Maple, Hemloc, 
Butternut & Buttonwood and from thence not so 
much Beech and Butternut. We agree that the 
Delaware cannot compare with the Susquehannah for 
good Land; nor is the Timber much more than 
Half as tall. We observed several Ducks with their 
young Broods so that they breed in this River. 

Cushietunk contains 16 or 17 Farms of which 4 
or 5 only are beyond the Rock on Station Point. 
The Mohawks Branch tend up N. and Popaghton 
N. E.; there is a small Quantity of good Land at 
Station Point and at the Mouth of Popaghton. The 
Islands in the River are all good. We did not stop 
to dine and came down on an average between 4 & 
5 Miles an Hour, but went on shore at Station Point 
where the River bears (I have forgot the Bearing as 
well as the Inscription on the Rock). 1 There is no 
Trace of a Settlement all the Way from Cookoose 
to Cushietunk 2 but several pretty Cascades down the 
Mountains into the River and they tell us That no 
Boats larger than Batteaux have ever gone down the 
River from Cushietunk on Account of the Falls. 

7 th We discharged Una who was desirous of re- 
turning 

1 This is a reference to the point of land made by a sharp bend in the 
river to the northwest just above Cochecton Village. It forms with the land an 
isosceles triangle of which the sides are about one mile in length. Across the 
river in New Jersey are the Cushietunk Mountains, near which the Connecticut 
folk made their settlement in 1757. 

2 Decker, whom " Dorn a Dutchman" found at the mouth of the East 
Branch ten years before, had obviously died or moved away. 

74 



TOUR OF THE DELAWARE 

turning and hired a Bazileel Tyler to take us down, 
having purchased a Canoe here for 40/. We set off 
from Cushietunk at Six oCloc and stopt at Shehola 
Creek 1 called Half Way, at y 2 after 1 2 to dine. 
We gave Una provisions for his Return besides the 
5 Dollars and we parted mutually satisfyed he being 
an expert Navigator tho perhaps he never saw a Ship 
or a Sail ; he could not speak English. 

We afterwards passed a considerable Creek run- 
ning in from the Westward called Lacwac (in Gib- 
son's Map Lechawacsein 2 ) & approached within 12 
Yards of a large Blac She Bear and her Two Cubs 
feeding on the Shore. M r Wells fired at and 
wounded her & we pursued her into the Woods 
without Effect. The Lands all the Way from Station 
Point hither are miserable affording only short 
scrubby Timber, no Flats, Hills, Rocks, and Stones 
in plenty & but one or Two Inhabitants. 

At x / 2 after 5 we arrived at the First House in the 
Minisinks where we stopt to make Oars for our 
Canoe having poled it all the Way from Cookoose 
with a little Help from a Paddle. We saw upon 
the Shore 2 Deer & 7 Wild Turkies but our Gun 
flashed in the Pan. The Lands from Schehola to 
the Minisinks continue bad with many high Rocks 
by Way of Banks similar to the rocky shore of 
Bergen. One of the highest we supposed to be 400 
Feet. The River from Cushietunk is full of Rifts 
and long Falls thro which the Canoe was con- 
ducted safely and dexterously by our Skipper. 

We 

1 Shoholaisthe present formof this word, ShoholaGlen being a popular resort. 

2 Lackawaxen, which means forks of the road. 

75 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

We passed by a Creek called Mangap 1 (not marked 
on the Maps). 

We are now of opinion that it will be impractic- 
able to transport the Produce of Otego this way to 
Advantage because of these Rifts. We saw but two 
Small Settlements between Cushietunk and the Mini- 
sinks and no Place fit for another. The Upper part 
of the Minisinks trades to Sopus and the lower to 
Philad a The Timber seen this Afternoon is like the 
rest low and scrubby and includes the White Pine 
Oak and Maple. At this upper part of the Mini- 
sinks the River is about 200 yards over. We learn 
that the Jersey Surveyors lately appointed to run the 
Line in Conjunction with the York Surveyors between 
the Two Provinces were here and as far as Popagh- 
ton last Week. They found that from Peter Kiken- 
dahls the Upper End of Minisinks to the Station Point 
measured 43% Miles and from the Station Point 
Rock to Shehawkin or the Mouth of Popaghton was 
31^2. From Kikendahls to Justice Rosecrants they 
reckon 30 Miles. 

8 th We lodged last Night at Peter Kikendahls. 2 
He had good Beds but we chose our Bear Skins as 
usual. There is a tolerable Farm and the first we 
have seen for some Time past. Here the Hills on the 
River open to the right and left and let in some good 
Flats. We found here a Number of Eels and large 
Lampreys taken in one of the Eel pots. They have 
a Shad Fishery so high up as Cushietunk. 

We 

1 Now written Mongaup, a stream ofconsiderable size with three branches 
flowing into the Delaware from the north about five miles above Port Jervis. 
The word means several streams. 

2 Now Port Jervis. 

7 6 



TOUR OF THE DELAWARE 

We quitted M r Kikendahls at 7 oCloc and in 
13% Hours reached one Otters 18 Miles above 
Easton, stopt one Hour at Dinner. M r Wells and 
myself rowed all the Way being 52 Miles. The 
Lands along the Minisinks are not so rich as I ex- 
pected ; very little Meadow is visible, the Ground 
rather fit for the Plow and somewhat sandy like ours 
about Burlington & accordingly they raise more rye 
than wheat. Not many Houses are to be seen and 
those quite mean, the Flats in many places narrow 
flanked still by the Range of Hills. The Islands are 
low & level, but the Bushes so thick round them that 
we could not discover how far they were improved. 
Samuel Depue has a good place. 

In the Evening we passed thro the Water Gap 
being the Passage between the Kittatinny 1 or Blue 
Mountains which are here very lofty and craggy; the 
Trees on their Tops appeared as Shrubs. The Spec- 
tacle was grand and worthy of a particular Descrip- 
tion but neither the Time or our Situation admitted of 
it. One Dunfy lives on a narrow Point at the Foot 
of the Mountains which surround him in such a 
Manner that he cannot stir from his House but 
by Water. 

The Soil of Sussex as far as we have seen is hilly, 
stony broken and indifferent; it is the same on the 
Pennsylvania side. The Timber is now the same as 
ours Oak and Hickory, Chesnut and Maple but 
shrubby & not fit for Sawing for the most Part. 
We had a Glimpse of the late Col. Van Camp's 

Place 

iThis word has been referred to the similar word Kittating, 
meaning great mountain or endless hills. 

77 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

Place 1 below Walpack; he has a good share of even 
Land and a Range of swelling Hills proper for Sheep 
Pasture as much of all this Country would be if it 
was cultivated. 

9 th The Rifts from Kikendahls are less frequent 
than from Cushietunk thither. Leaving Otters 2 at 7 
oCloc we passed thro the Wind Gap and stopt at 
Easton to drink some Punch and get shaved. The 
Country now becomes less hilly except about the 
Wind Gap above Easton where there is a Range of 
small Mountains not so large as the Kittatinny — 
they say that Lewis Gordon of Easton is Ferryman, 
Tavern Keeper Lawyer, Clerk of the Court and 
Justice of the Peace — we found the Foul Rift rather 
more turbulent than the rest. Opposite to Durham 
we dined & saw only 2 houses at the Mouth of Dur- 
ham Creek. Musconetcung 3 which divides Hunter- 
don from Sussex is about a Mile above. A hand- 
some Court House is lately built at Easton. 

From Durham downwards we had the Pleasure of 
viewing the improved Plantations in Hunterdon and 
Buck's Counties. Adam Hoops has several Mills in 
Sufsex and Tho s Riche a Country House in Hunter- 
don, opposite to which is another House pleasantly 
situated ; this we find a hot day. We saw many of 
those long vessels called Durham Boats so useful to 

the 



1 One of the forts shown on the " American Military Pocket Atlas " pub- 
lished in London in 1776 for the use of the British army during the Revo- 
lutionary War. 

2 Otter's appears to have been what is now Manunka Chunk. 

3 Five miles below Easton flows into the Delaware the River Musconetcung 
which has its lower courses between the Pohatcongand Musconetcung Moun- 
tains. 



78 



TOUR OF THE DELAWARE 

the Upper Parts of the River and have passed fewer 
Rifts since we left Easton. In the Evening M r Tyler 
went home and we lodged with Edward Marshall 
who lives on an Island 35 Miles above Trenton 
which Island his Father bought of the Indians and 
he now holds it independent of any Government. 

This Marshal is the Man who performed the 
famous Walk 1 for the Proprietaries of Pennsylv 3 in 
1733, for which as he tells us, he has never yet rec d 
any Reward. He has been a great Traveller about 
the back Parts. He avers that on the Top of the 
Blue Mountains, a Mile from the Water Gap, on the 
Jersey side there are Two Lakes, one of which con- 
tains above 700 acres of clear Rock Water well 
stored with Red Perch, Sun Fish and other Fish 
with a gravelly Bottom and no visible Outlet, and 
that there is likewise on that Mountain a Spring 
from which oozes out a Scum being when burnt a 
good red or brown Paint according to the degree of 
burning and that great Quantities of it are taken 
away and used as such by the Indians. He thinks 
this comes from a large bed of copper ore and that 
there are now many Cartloads of that Paint on the 
Spot. We remarked today that the Descent of the 
Waters in the River is visible in divers Places owing 
to the considerable Fall or Slope of the Country. 

10 th We engaged one Newman, Son in Law to 
Marshal, to pilot us down to Trenton; went off at 
5 oCloc and breakfasted at Corryels Ferry. We 
gave Bazileel Tyler 6 Dollars for bringing us down 

from 

1 A reference to the Walking Purchase, already described 
in the Introduction. 

79 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

from Cushietunk to Marshals. We learn that the 
Freight of a Bushel of Wheat from Marshals to 
Philad 3 is y d from Easton to Philad a g d and from the 
Minisinks i/. For a Barrel of Flour from Marshals 
2/. from Easton 2/6. (the Freight of a Bushel of 
Wheat from Sussex to Burlington used to be 6 d ). 
Before 1 2 oCloc we came to Trenton and from 
thence M r Wells and myself continued our Course 
to Burlington where we arrived in the Afternoon, 
having come today 51 Miles and we had the Satis- 
faction to find our Families in good Health. 



80 



V 

A TABLE OF DISTANCES 

Rout taken by Mess r . s Welles and Smith Biddle 
Ridgway and Hicks in May and continued by the 
Two Former in June 1769. 

Miles 

From Burlington to New York over Paulus 

Hook Ferry 75 

To Albany by Water 164 

(By land 157) 
To the Mouth of the Mohawk River ... 7 

To the Cahoes 5 

To Schenectady 16 

(From Albany to Schenectady along the 

usual Road 17) 
To Sir John Johnson's, Knight & Bar c . . .17 
To Col. Fry's on the Mohawk River . . .21 
To Major Wells's in Cherry Valley . . . .12 
To Cap c Prevoost's at the Head of Lake Otsego . 9 

A Waggon Road all the Way. 1 326 

From Cap f Prevoost's to Col. Croghans the 

Foot of Lake Otsego 8 or 9 

To the Upper Corner of the Otego Tract 

down the River Susquehannah .... 20 

To 

1 By this the author only means all the way from Albany to the 
head of Lake Otsego. 

8l 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

To the Mouth of Otego Creek 24 

To the Mouth of Unadella 16 

(Here was a small village of Mohiccons.) 
To Cunnahunta on the Great Island . . .16 
(Here was a small Oneida village.) 

To Ahquhaga 12 

(an Oneida Town of 1 40 souls) 
Here we crossed over along a blind Indian 
Path to Cookooze on the Mohawk Branch 
of Delaware. Cookoose is a Settlem t of 
Two Families of the Delaware Nation, 
the only Indians remaining on the River 

Delaware 

From Cookoose to Shehawkin or the Mouth 

of Popaghton Branch 15 

To Cushietunk or Station Point as measured 

lately by the Jersey Surveyors . . . 3 1 */£ 
To Peter Kikendahl's the Upper End of 

Minisinks as measured by do 43/^ 

Length of the Minisinks 40 

To Easton 30 

To Edward Marshals on an Island .... 27 

To Trenton 35 

To Burlington 16 

238 
In all 

Round to the Lake Otsego 326 

down that Lake and the Susquehannah . 97 
from Susquehannah across to Delaware . 1 5 

down the Delaware 238 



Total Miles, 676 
82 



VI 



NOTES ON THE MANNERS AND CUSTOMS OF THE 
INDIANS 

Lower down on and near the Susquehannah there 
are yet remaining several Towns of various Tribes 
as Onondagoes Tuscarora's Nanticokes Delawares 
Shawanese and others but these will all doubtless be 
wormed out in a few years by the Whites and the 
Indians obliged to retire beyond the Lakes. The 
Indians settled in the Neighborhood of the English 
are Known, from whatever cause, to decrease fast 
and probably distant Posterity will peruse as Fables 
the accounts which may be handed down of the 
present Customs of the Aborigines of North Amer- 
ica. I was desirous of procuring some Intelligence 
of their Manners and Usages but had little oppor- 
tunity and less Time and Leisure to learn any Thing 
very material. 

They are extremely lazy and indolent, take little 
care today for the sustenance of Tomorrow and are 
therefore often in want of Food and other Neces- 
saries for which their Idleness makes them always 
dependent on their more provident Neighbors. 
Cloathing they use but little, sometimes a Shirt or 
Shift with a Blanket or Coat, a Half-Gown and Petti- 
coat, and sometimes the latter only without Linen. 
Woolen Boots and Leather Moccisons compleat the 

83 Dress 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

Dress of the common sort unless, which is rare, they 
possess a Hat or some other Covering for the Head. 
Some of the Chiefs, however, imitate the English 
Mode and Joseph Brant was dressed in a suit of blue 
Broad Cloth as his Wife was in a Callicoe or Chintz 
Gown. They frequently sleep naked & divers of the 
younger sort drefs gaily in their Way, some of both 
sexes using Bobs and Trinkets in their Ears and 
Noses, Bracelets on their Arms and Rings on their 
Fingers. Every Man and Woman are Physicians 
for themselves or give their Advice gratis to others. 

As they raise no Sheep or Flax and make no Iron 
so they weave no Cloth but rough drefs Deerskins 
for their Moccisons and depend upon the Whites 
for Metallic and other Manufactures. They subsist 
chiefly by their Indian Corn, esculent Vegetables and 
by their Deer & Beaver Hunting, and last Year the 
Corn failing in great Measure they lived thro the 
Winter and Spring on the Money received at the 
Treaty of Fort Stanwix last October for the sale of 
their Lands. They were continually passing up to 
the Settlements to buy Provisions and sometimes 
shewed us money in their Bosoms. 

Their government is known to be democratic, 
deviating but little from a State of Nature. Courts 
and Ministers of Justice they have none, to Law and 
Lawyers they are strangers, nor are Crimes often 
committed. Debts and Theft seem to be almost un- 
known among them, Property being in some Degree 
common to all. I had the Curiosity to ask an In- 
dian what was their Method of recovering Debts ; 
he answered " We go to the Debtor and take away 
his Gun or any Thing we can find belonging to him." 

84 In 



INDIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 

In their Towns they are generally sober and quiet, 
but among the white People their Propensity to 
Drunkenness is too well known ; in that state they 
are noisy and troublesome. 

The authority of the Chiefs is said to descend to 
the Eldest Son, but they are deposed at the pleasure 
of their Townsmen for Insufficiency or Absence or 
other cause. The Chief of Ahquhaga in Civil Affairs 
when I was there, had removed to another Town 
and was therefore deprived of his Post, but happen- 
ing to return he was reinstated. Pride and Envy 
are to be found here as elsewhere for some of the 
Townsmen being piqued at the Authority exercised 
by the Chief Priest refused to attend divine service 
under his Administration tho his Conduct and De- 
portment appeared to be regular and inoffensive. 

The Domination Civil or Ecclesiastical seems 
not to be of the Coercive kind, the Custom being 
for those who have rec d an injury to complain to the 
Chief who represents to the Agressor the Hein- 
ousness of his Crime and generally procures Satisfac- 
tion to the Party injured, but if he cannot succeed 
then the Party redresses Himself in the best Manner 
he can. And in cases of Murder if the Murderer is 
killed ever so many years after or ever so treacher- 
ously it is esteemed by the Nation as an Act of Jus- 
tice 6c applauded accordingly. 

Marriage is performed by a Clergyman either 
White or Indian where there happens to be one. 
Whilst we are at Ahquhaga a young Mohawk and 
his handsome Bride about I 5, were there on a visit 
to her Relations. They had been married but Two 
Weeks and the Courtship was thus as we were informed 

85 by 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

by M r Dean the Interpreter: the young Fellow had 
been there, saw the Girl and liked Her, but said 
Nothing then. After he got home to Conejoharie 
above an ioo miles distant, he sent her a Letter, for 
some of the Indians tho they cannot speak English 
can write their own Language very well; the Sub- 
stance of the Letter was that he fancied her for a 
Wife and if she approved the Proposal she might 
come to Him at such a Time and be married, and 
she and her Friends accepted the Offer accordingly. 
I did not hear what is the Mode of Burial but pre- 
sume it differs not much from ours. 

Their chief amusement seems to be Smoaking, 
Conversation & Hunting. They use long Pipes 
with Wooden Stems & Stone Boles large & clumsy. 
They are ingenious at making Belts, embroidering 
Moccassons & Garments with Wampum. As they 
work little they consequently demand high Prices for 
their Labor. 1 * 

1 The illustration showing Indian relics on the adjoining page, was made 
from objects collected by Willard E. Yager, of Oneonta. Mr. Yager has 
what is perhaps one of the most important Indian collections in the state. 
Several years ago he formed another large collection, but it was entirely de- 
stroyed by fire in 1894, when the State Normal School buildings at Oneonta 
were burned. Mr. Yager began the present collection in 1903, his purpose 
being to illustrate Indian life on the headwaters of the Susquehanna from 
Otsego Lake to Great Bend, and including the adjacent hillsides to the divide 
between the Susquehanna and the Delaware on the east and the Chenango 
on the west. This territory, which was occupied in the historic period by 
the Iroquois, in earlier times .was the home of other Indians of the same 
family who are classed as Conestogas or Susquehannas. 

Mr. Yager's collection now numbers about 2,500 objects, selected from 
four or five times that number as brought to light and preserved by various 
persons during the last thirty or forty years. Care has been taken by him 
to identify and fix the history of each specimen. Nearly every kind of In- 
dian artefact known to students is well represented. The collection is par- 
ticularly rich in specimens of flint and pottery and is housed in a building 
especially built for the purpose. 

86 




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INDIAN MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 

At Ahquhaga & other Towns seen by me, they 
have Horses, Cows, Hogs, and Poultry, make Butter 
and Maple Sugar, bake their Bread in the Ashes with- 
out yeast and have the Discretion to keep Rum by 
them in their Houses and take it in moderation. 
They are faithful in what they undertake, have sharp 
Eyesight, susprising Knowledge of the Woods, are 
expert in hunting, fishing, managing Canoes, and in 
whatever else they have been conversant. 

They know Nothing yet of Hours or Miles but 
point to the Sun as to say they will perform such a 
Journey by that Time the Sun is in such a Position 
counting their Fingers for Days and using notched 
sticks for Almanacs, and cannot therefore express 
with any Accuracy the Distance of Time or Place. 

Of their Origin I never could learn any satisfac- 
tory Account. Some Authors and W m Penn among 
the rest, misled by theological Prejudices, have sup- 
posed them to be descended from the Ten captivated 
Tribes of Jews, an absurd Chimasra unworthy of the 
American Lycurgus ; others with more Probability 
adopt the Idea of a Passage from the N. E. Parts of 
Asia to the N. W. Regions of America thro which 
some Tartars may have transmigrated in remote Ages, 
whose Posterity in procefs of Time became dispersed 
throughout this immense Wilderness. But Writers 
are not wanting who reject this Hypothesis and con- 
tend that the Africans, Americans and Whites were 
originally created upon their own Soil. 

For Religion, the distant Savages unconnected 
with Christians are said neither to profess or practice 
any. And it may well be doubted notwithstanding 
all that has been written whether any Form of Wor- 

87 ship 



FOUR GREAT RIVERS 

ship was in use or any clear Ideas of the Deity im- 
pressed on their minds anterior to the Arrival of 
Europeans here. Those of Ahquhaga follow the 
Presbyterian Mode of Worship because a Minister of 
that Persuasion has happened to be established there. 
They understand Psalmody very well, and tho they 
attend very seriously to the Preacher, English or In- 
dian, yet the Matter of the Sermon makes as little 
Impression on their Lives and Conversations as Ser- 
mons usually do on politer Congregations. 

Some other Particulars with their Manner of Build- 
ing Towns and Houses have been occasionally men- 
tioned in the foregoing Notes which were taken on 
the Spot Currente Calamo. As to the rest, having 
often visited the Whites their Manners seem to differ 
little from those of our lower Class of People. 1 

1 The manuscript from which Mr. Smith's Journal has here been put into 
type — the same, as already stated, being the George H. Moore copy — has at 
this point the following memorandum: 

" (Copy taken for the use of M. Du Simitiere in October, 1780.) [by 
the hon. Richard Smith, of Burlington, Esquire.]" 

The modern character of the paper on which the Moore copy was written 
indicates that it is not identical with the Du Simitiere copy, but that it is a 
transcript from it. The comparison made by the editor between it and 
the original first draft, now owned by Mr. Coad, however, has fully 
authenticated the text of the Journal as printed here. 



88 



INDEX 



INDEX 



Adaquetinge River, the, 58 

Addison, Joseph, 37 

Afton (N. Y.), 63 

Aikin (N. Y.), 25 

Akery (N. Y.), 31 

Albany, settlement of, xxvii ; 
trading post at, xl ; a ren- 
dezvous for troops, 1 ; sloops 
that sail to and from, 4; 
sloops at, 9; road to 
from New York, 9; meadow 
lands near, 15 ; the town 
described, 16-18; departure 
from, 19; lands and timber 
near, 21, 62, 81 

Albany County, xxxii, xlviii, 

II, 17 

Allegheny River, the, xvi 
Allegheny Mountains, the, 47 
Allen, John, 68 
"American Military Pocket 

Atlas," the, lxix," 78 
Amsterdam (N. Y.), xlix, 17 
Andrews, William, xlii 
Andros, Governor, xliii 
Anthony's Nose, xxxv 
Anti-rent war, 21 
Arnold, Benedict, 24 
Atlantic City (N.J.), lxiv 
Auriesville (N. Y.), xli 

Bacon, E. M., xxix 
Banyar, Gouldsborough, 62 
Barclay, Henry, xlvii 
Batavia (N.Y.), 31 
Battery, the, xxvi 



Bear's Island, 14 

Beekman, Colonel, xxxii 

Beekman Manor, xxxv 

Belcher, Governor, lxviii 

Beletre, — , 1 

Bellomont, Earl of, Governor, 
xxxii, xliv 

Bethlehem (Penn.), road to 
from Wyoming, 57 

Biddle, Joseph, 3 ; and the 
Otego survey, 40, 44, 50, 
58,81 

Binghamton (N. Y.), 57, 65 

Border Wars, the, on the New 
York frontier, xviii, lix, lx, 
53- 60 

Boston, xxiv 

Bowling Green, xxiii 

Braddock, General Edward, 1, 
lvi ; defeat of, lxviii 

Bradstreet, General John, 15 

Bradt, Arent, lvii 

Brainard, David, lvi 

Brant, Joseph ; his father, xvii, 
22 ; and Colonel Claus ; de- 
stroys German Flats, 27; 
destroys Springfield, 29; at 
the Cherry Valley massacre, 
30-31; his early life, 37; at 
Sleeper's house, 46; engaged 
by Mr. Smith as guide, 47; 
builds a bark canoe, 57; 
finds a rattlesnake, 58; 
starts with Mr. Smith down 
the Susquehanna, 58; his 
farm at Canajoharie, 60; ill- 



91 



INDEX 



ness of, 62 ; at Oghwaga, 56, 

8 4 
Brant, Mrs. Joseph, 49, 58; 

her silver ornaments, 69 
Brant, Molly, 22 
Break Neck Mountain, 7 
Brekabean (N. Y.), 37 
Bressani, Joseph, xli 
Broadhead, John H., xxxi 
Broken Neck Hill, 7 
Brown, John, xix 
Brunswick (N. J.), 3 
Bruyar, the missionary, liii 
Bucks County (Penn.), 78 
Buell, Augustus C, liv, lxiii, 

lxv 
Burlington (N. J.), home of 

Mr. Smith, xiv; founded, 

lxiii; lxiv, 3, 30, 36, 77', 

arrival at, 80, 81 
Burlington Creek, 39, 40 
Burnet, Governor, xlv; sends 

men to Oghwaga, lv 
Burns's Tavern, 3 
Butler, John, a grant of land 

to, xvii, lx 
Butler, Walter N., 30 
Butler, Colonel William, 72 
Butter Hill, 7 
Butternut Creek, grant of land 

on, xvii, 42 



Callicoon (N.Y.), 73 
Camden (N. J.), lxii 
Campbell, Mr., 60 
Canada Creek, li 
Canadurango Lake, lvii, 38, 48 
Canajoharie, li, 28; Brant's 

farm at, 60 
Carr, Percefer, lix 
Carryel's Ferry, 79 
Cartwright's Tavern, 16 
Castle Philipse, 5 
Castleton (N. Y.), 7 



Catawbas, the, 47 
Catskill Creek, xxx, 12 
Catskill (N. Y.), 6, 31; wagon 

road to, 37 
Catskill and Susquehanna 

Turnpike, 40 
Catskill Landing, 12 
Catskill Mountains, 7, 9, 13 
Chamberlain, Theophilus, 60 
Champlain, Samuel de, xl 
Charlotte Hall (Md.), xviii 
Charlotte River, the, liv, lvi ; 
land on, lvii; head of, 31; 
trail along, 52; name of, 58 
Charlotte, Queen, 58-59 
Chehocton (N. Y.), 73 
Cheonadilla (N. Y.), 56; see 

Unadilla 
Cherry Valley Creek, lvii 
Cherry Valley (N. Y.), settle- 
ment of, lix, lxix, 12, 14; 
distance to from Albany, 16, 
23; on the road to, 28; the 
start for, 29; arrival of the 
author at, 30; Massacre of, 
30, 46; church at, 31 ; a sul- 
phur spring near, 32; indus- 
tries at, 33, 35, 36; pearl ash 
works at, 41 ; men obtained 
at, 47; trail to, 52, 55; sup- 
plies from, 56, 60, 64, 72, 81 
Chesapeake Bay, 52 
"Chronicles of Cooperstown," 

the, 36 
City Hall, of New York, xxiii 
City Hotel, 3 
Clarendon, Earls of, 32 
Clarke, Lieutenant Governor, 

xxxiii, xlvii, xlviii, 32 
Clarke, George Hyde, 32 
Claus, Colonel Daniel, 24; his 

home, 25, 27 
Clench's Hotel, 22, 27 
Clinton, Governor George, 72 
Clinton, General James, 49 



92 



INDEX 



Coad, J. Francis, xviii, xix, 
xxi, 88 

Cobleskill (N.Y.), 35 

Cochecton (N. Y.), Ixiv; vil- 
lage of, 73, 74 

Coeymans (N. Y.), 14 

Cohoes (N. Y.), meaning of 
the word, 19; arrival at, 19; 
the falls of, described, 21, 81 

Colden, Cadwallader, xxiii, li, 
lv 

Columbia County (N. Y.), 17 

Connecticut, xxx ; population 
of, xxxiii ; people from, in 
Pennsylvania, lxx 

Cookooze (N. Y.), lxxii, 57, 
63 ; path to from Oghwaga, 
71, 73; departure from, 73, 

74 

Cookooze-Sapoze, 70 

Cornwall (N.Y.), 7 

Cook House, 70 

Cooper, Fenimore, xvii, lxii, 26 

Cooper, William, xx, 36 

Cooperstown (N. Y.), xviii, 6; 
a bridge at, 49 

Council Rock, 36 

Craig, Andrew, 36 

Cranbury (N. J.), 3 

Croghan, Colonel George, his 
grant of land on Otsego 
Lake, xviii, lx, 29; his bat- 
teau, 35 ; builds a house on 
Otsego Lake, 36; his patent, 
40; at his home, 44, 47, 48; 
talks of building a sawmill, 
49, 59, 81 

Crosby, Aaron, xxiii 

Crosswicks (N. J.), 3 

Croton Bay, 5 

Croton River, xxxviii, 5 

Cunnahunta (N. Y.), 63, 64, 73 

Cushietunk (N. Y.),lxiv,lxvii ; 
settlement at, lxx, 57, 71, 73; 
road from, 73, 74; departure 



from, 75 ; no settlement be- 
low, 76, 78, 80 

Cushietunk Mountain, 74 

Cuyler, Henry, 15 

Dartmouth College, 47 

Davies, John, 47 

Dean, James, 65, 67; goes to 

Cookooze, 71, 86 
Dean, Joseph, xv 
Decker, 59, 74 
De Curcelles — , xlii 
De Kay, Thomas, lxvii 
Delaware Bay, lxiii 
Delaware Company, lxx 
Delaware County (N. Y.), 22, 

39 

Delaware Indians, the, lvi, lxi, 
lxv ; activity of, lxviii, lxxi ; 
at Cookooze, 80, 83 

Delaware River, the, xvi ; name 
of, lxi ; called the Fishkill, 
lix, lxxi ; coming of white 
men to, lxii ; west branch of, 
lxii ; forts on, lxiii ; Indian 
troubles on, lxix; settlements 
on west branch of, lxxii ; 
head of, 31; source of, 45; 
at Cookooze, 63 ; east branch 
of, 67 ; the road to from 
Oghwaga, 71 ; lands on, 71, 
72 ; a start to descend, 73 ; 
two branches of, 74 ; lands 
on, 75 ; at Minisink, 76 

Delaware Water Gap, lxvi, 
lxxi, 56, 77, 79 

Dellius, Doctor, xliii, xliv 

Denton's Ferry, 8 

Denton's Mill," 8 

Deposit (N. Y.), lxxii, 70; see 
Cookooze 

Depuis, Nicholas, lxvi, 56, 57 

Dongan, Governor Thomas; 
his "Report on the Province" 
of New York, xxvii ; on the 



93 



INDEX 



immigration to New York, 
xxxii, xxxv ; and the mis- 
sionaries, xlvi ; and traders 
on the Susquehanna, lv 

Dorn, a Dutchman, 56 

Dunlop, Samuel, lviii, 31 

Dutch, the, in New York, xxv ; 
on the Delaware, lxiii 

Dutchess County (N. Y.), xxxii, 
6, 9 

Dunfy — , yy 

Durham boats, 57 

Durham Creek, 78 

Dyer, John, 13 



Easton (Penn.), lxiii, lxiv,lxv, 
lxxi, yy, 78; the Delaware 
below, 79 
Edmeston, Colonel, lix 
Edwards, Nathaniel, xv, xix 
Elizabeth (N.J.), 3 
Erie, Lake, xxii 
Erie Railway, the, lxiv, 70 
Esopus (N. Y.), trading post 
at, xxix, xxx, xxxi, lxvi, 
lxxii ; meaning of the word, 
8, 56; road to, 73 
Essex County (N. J.), yy 
Evans, Captain, xliii ; his tract, 
xliv ; his map, 29 



Ferguson, Edward, xix 

Finns, the, lxii 

Fishkill (N.Y.),9 

Fishkill Creek, xxxv 

Fiske, John, xxv 

Fitch, Jonathan, xix 

Fletcher, Governor, xliv 

Fonda, Major, 24 

Forbes, Eli, lvi 

Forks of the Delaware, the, 

lxiv 
Fort Aurania (N. Y.), xxvii 



Fort George (N. Y.), xxiv, 

xxvi 
Fort Hunter (N. Y.), xli, 

xlvii, xlviii, li, 24, 26 
Fort Johnson (N. Y.), li, 25; 

the Mohawk at, 26 
Fort Nassau (N. J.), lxii 
Fort Niagara (N. Y.), xliii; 

siege of, 37 
Fort Orange (N. Y.), xxvii, 

16, 17 
Fort Penn (Penn.), lxxi 
Fort Schuyler (N. Y.), xv 
Fort Stanwix (N. Y.), treaty 

of, xv, xvi, xviii, lix, lxix, 

Hi ; and George Croghan, 36 ; 

line of at Unadilla, 63 
Forty Fort (Penn.), lxxi 
Franklin, Benjamin, at the 

Fort Stanwix Treatv, xvii, 

36 
Franklin, William, xix, 36 
Fraunces' Tavern, xxiv 
Fredericksborough, 5 
Freehold (N. J.), 14 
Freeman, Bernardus, xlvi 
Fry, Colonel, 28, 81 
Frontenac, Count, xxvi ; at- 
tacks Schenectady, xliii 



George III, xvii, 59 
German Camp, the, 12 
German Flats (N. Y.), 1, 27 
Germans, settle near Cherry 

Valley, 30 
Gilbert's Lake, 42 
Golden Hill, battle of, xxiii 
Gordon, Dowager Duchess of, 

*3> 37, 52 
Goshen, country of, 7 
Gould, Jay, lxix, lxxiii 
Great Bend (Penn.), 65 
Great Western Turnpike, the, 

30 



94 



INDEX 



Green Hill (N. J.), xiv 
Guest, Henry, xviii 

Halsey, Edward, xix 

Hamilton, Alexander, xxx 

Hamilton College, 37 

Hancock (N. Y.)> had, 57. 73 

Hardenburg patent, the, 21 

Harlem River, the, 4 

Harper family, the, lix, 35 

Harper Patent, the, 60 

Harper's Sawmill, 35 

Harpersfield (N. Y.)„ 35 

Harper, William, 60 

Hartwick, John C, lix, 38, 42, 
48 

Hawley, Gideon, lvi, lxix 

Hedge, A., 29 

Herkimer settlement, the, xix 

Hicks, John, xix, 3, 29, 44, 81 

Highlands, the, 6, 7; range of, 
8, 9 

Hiokatoo, 31 

Hooper, Adam, 78 

Howe, Lord, 1 

Hudson, Henry, liii, lxii 

Hudson Valley, the settlement 
of, xxii ; land holdings in, 
xxxiii ; Palatines in, xxxvii ; 
want of ministers in, xxxvii ; 
course of from New York, 
6; lands cultivated in, 7, 8, 
9; fish in the river, 12; near 
Albany, 15; lands in above 
Albany, 19-20; the river 
open in winter for ships, 23 

Huguenots, on the Hudson, 
xxxi, lxvi, lxxii 

Hunter, Governor, xxvii 

Hunterdon County (N. J.), 78 

Hurley (N.Y.), xxx 

Hyde family, the, 32 

Hyde Hall, 32 

Indians, at the Fort Stan- 



wix Treaty, xvi ; forts for 
defense against, xxvii ; hos- 
tilities from in the Hudson 
Valley, xxix ; almost depopu- 
late the province of New 
York, xxxi ; and Father 
Jogues, xli ; and the Van 
Rensselaer estate, xxxiv ; 
on the Delaware, lxiv ; how 
they carry their children, 52 ; 
not troublesome, 56; a vil- 
lage of, 62, 63, 64 ; houses of 
at Oghwaga, 65-67; at 
Cookooze, 70; on the Sus- 
quehanna, 85 ; their manners 
and customs, 84; their 
chiefs, 85 ; their origin, 87 

Iroquois kings, the, 37 

Isaac, an Indian, 6j, 68 

James, an Indian, 58, 71, 73 
Jesuits in New York, xlvi 
Jogues, Isaac, describes New 

York, xxv, xli, 29 
Johnson, Colonel Guy, 23; his 

home, 25 
Johnson, Sir John, 24, 81 
Johnson, Sir "William, and the 
Fort Stanwix Treaty, xv-xvi ; 
arrival of in the Mohawk 
Valley, xlviii ; at Warren's 
Bush, xlix; at Oghwaga, 
lvi ; his lands on the Susque- 
hanna, lvii ; plans a fort at 
Oghwaga, lxx, 11, 22; his 
home at Johnstown, 24, 25, 
36; and Joseph Brant, 37, 
47; his lands on the Susque- 
hanna, 69, 71, 62, 65 
Johnston, Rev. William, lx, li 
Johnstown (N. Y.), 24 
Jones, Thomas, xxiv 

Kaatskill ; see Catskill 
Kalm, Peter, 16 



95 



INDEX 



Kayaderosseras, grant of, xlv 
Kennedy, xxiv 
Kidd, Captain, xxxiii 
Kieffer, H. M., lxv 
Kikendahl, Peter; his house, 

76, 77, 78 
Kincaid, his house, 24, 25, 28 
King William's War, xlvii 
Kingsbridge (N. Y.), 4 
King's College, xxiv 
Kingston (N. Y.), settlement 

of, xxx, xxxii, lxvi 
Kingston, Ont, xliii 
Kirkland, Samuel, lvi, 37 
Kithanne River, the, lxi 
Kittatinny Mountains, the, JJ, 

Kleynties — , xl, liii 
Kortright, Lawrence, lx 



Lackawaxen (Penn.), 75 
Lake George, 1 ; battle of, 37 
La Salle, the explorer, xlii 
Laurens (N. Y.), town of, 

xviii 
"Leather Stocking Tales," 

the, 36 
Lebanon (Conn.), 37, 47 
Lehigh River, the, lxiv 
Lenni-Lenapes, the, lxi ; see 

Delazuare Indians 
Lenox Library, the, xxi 
Lindesav, John, lvii, lviii 
Little Egg Harbor (N. J.), 

lxiv 
Little Sopus (N. Y.), 9 
Livingston's Manor (N. Y.), 

xxxv, xxxvi, xxxvii, II, 12 
Livingston, Richard R., the 

Chancellor, 11 
Londonderry (N. H.), lviii 
Lowe, Nicholas, lix, 54 
Lull, Benjamin, 40 
Lynn (Mass.), xxx 



Mabie House, the, xlii 

Manhasset, xxx 

Manhattan, origin of the name, 
lxii 

Manunka Chunk (N. J.), 78 

Marbletown (N. Y.), 30 

Marlborough (N. Y.), 8 

Marshall, Edward, 79, 80 

Martiler's Rock, 6 

Martin's Patent, 35 

Mathews, Alfred, lxx 

Maryland, population of, 
xxxviii, 31 

Matteson — , xx 

Megapolensis, Rev. Dr., xl 

Meynall, Joseph, xix 

Middlefield (N.Y.), lix 

Milet, the missionary, liii 

Miller, Godfrey, 35 

Miln, John, xvii 

Minisink (N. Y.), settlement 
of, xxxi, xxxii, lxvi ; growth 
of, lxvii ; trouble in, lxvii ; 
on the road to Pennsylvania, 
lxxi, 8, 73 ; first house in, 
75 ; no settlement above, 
7 6 

Mohawk River, the; Indians 
of, at Fort Hunter, 24; up- 
per Indian castle on, 28 ; 
Indians following husbandry 
on, 60; first knowledge of, 
xl ; Palatines arrive on, 
xxxvii ; grants of land on, 
xliii, xlv ; settlement of, 
xlv, xlvii ; Indian's mission 
of, xlvi ; Indians from set- 
tled at Oghwaga, liv; 
mouths of, 19; lands on, 
21 ; at Schenectady, 23 ; and 
the Border Wars, 24; near 
Fort Johnson, 26; families 
from going to Pennsylvania, 

Mohicans, devastate the Hud- 



96 



INDEX 



son Valley, xxx; a village 

of, 62, 11 
Mongaup River, the, 76 
Montcalm, General, xxxix 
Montgomery, General Richard, 

11, 24 
Moodna Creek, 7 
Moore, George H., xxi, 87 
Moore, General Sir Henry, 4, 

11 
Morgan's Riflemen, 72 
Morris, Governor, lxviii 
Morris, General Jacob, 42 
Morris, Lewis, 13 
Morris, Richard, 13 
Morris, Colonel Roger, xxxv 
Morris, Colonel Staats Long, 

13- 37< 42, 52. 56 
Morrisania (N. Y.), 13 
Moseley, Eleazer, lvi, 64; his 

work at Oghwaga, 65, 67, 68 
Murderer's Creek, 7 
Musconetcung Mountains, the, 

78 
Musconetcung River, the, 78 
Mount Vision (N. Y,), xix 
Meyers — , 35 

Narrows, the, 4 
Natchez (Miss.), xx 
Newark (N. J.), lxxiii, 3 
Newberry, John, xix, 8 
New Beverly (N. J.), lxiii 
New England, men from, 
crossing to the Susque- 
hanna, 8 
New Hampshire, population 

of, xxxviii 
New Jersey, Smith's history 
of, xiv ; population of, 
xxxviii ; troubles of, with 
New York, lxvii 
Newman — , 79 
New Netherlands, map of, 
xxvii 



New Paltz (N. Y.), xxxii 
New Windsor (N. Y.), 7 
New York, population of the 
province of, xiii, xxiii, 
xxxviii ; its northern fron- 
tier, xxvi ; population of, 
xxxii; a penal colony, xxxiii ; 
in the French War, xxxix; 
Figurative Map of, xl 
New York City, in 1752, de- 
scribed, xxiv, xxix; freight 
to, from Albany, 6; roads 
from, to Albany, 9 ; Niagara, 
xliii 
Non-Importation Agreement, 

xxiii 
North Carolina, population of, 

xxxviii 
North Station Point, lxvii 
Nott, Rev. Eliphalet, 31 

Oaks Creek, 37; see Oaksnee 
Oaksnee, 37; lands on, 38, 44 
Oghwaga, trade at, xlix; an 
old town, liii ; missionaries 
at, lvi ; Gideon Hawley at, 
lxix ; Indians from, 37 ; the 
Indian town at, 47 ; path 
of the Indians to, 55, 62; 
arrival at, 64; Indian 
houses at, 65-66; services 
at, 67 ; described, 68 ; a ser- 
mon at, 68; path from to 
Cookooze, 70 ; destruction 
of, 72, 73 
Ohio River, the, xvi 
"Old New York Frontier," 

the, lvi 
Oneida County (N. Y.), xv 
Oneida Indians, the, 71 
Oneida Lake, xvi, liv 
Oneonta (N. Y.). in the Otego 
patent, xvii. 6 ; storehouse 
near, 57; village of, 57; the 
creek, 59, 60, 86 



97 



INDEX 



Onondaga Indians, the, 83 
Onoyarenton; see Oneonta 
Ontario Lake, xl 
Orange County (N. Y.), xxxi, 
xxxii, lxvii ; the line of, 5> 

6,7 
Oriskany, Battle of, xv 
Oswego (N.Y.), xlv, 1 
Otego, the patent, survey of, 
xv ; location of, xvii ; lands 
purchased on, 3 ; settle- 
ments on, 6, 31, 38, 39; is- 
lands in the creek, 42, 49; 
ascent of the creek, 50, 51 ; 
timber on, 53-55 ; a mill on, 
60; length of the creek, 60, 
72,81 
Otego, the village of, 40 
Otsdawa Creek, the, xviii 
Otsego County (N. Y.), xvii 
Otsego Lake, grant of land on, 
xvii, xx, lvii; settlement on, 
lx ; white men at, xl, li ; 
Indians at, liv; the only 
wagon road to, 8, 34; the 
patent, 40; lands near, 45; 
a canoe built on, 46; trail 
to, 52, 57, 81 
Otseningo (N.Y.), 55, 64 
Otter's, 77-78 
Ouleout Creek, the, lx 



Palatine Bridge (N. Y.), 28 ^ 
Palatine Germans, the, xxxvii ; 
on the Susquehanna, lv; on 
the Delaware, lxv; at Liv- 
ingston Manor, 12; at Scho- 
harie, 33 
Palisades, the, 4 
Parkman, Francis, xli; quoted, 

16 
PaulusHook (N.J.), 3,81 
Peace of Utrecht, the, xlv 
Pennamite Wars, the, 56 



Pennsylvania, population of, 

xxxviii 
Pennsylvania Dutch, the, lvi 
Penn, William, growth of his 

colony after he made his 

treaty, lxii; founds West 

Jersey, lxiv, 87 
Peter, an Indian, 67, 68 
Philadelphia, xxiv, lxiii 
Philipse, Colonel, xxxvi 
Philipse, Frederick, xxxv 
Philipse, Mary, xxxv 
Philipse Manor, xxxviii; 

lands at described, 5 
Picken, Robert, 37; his map, 

43; and the survey, 44, 45, 

46 
Pocono Mountains, lxxi, 56 
Pohatkong, 78 
Polopel's Island, 6 
Pondicherry, siege of, 13 
Pontiac, conspiracy of, li 
Popaghton, the, branch of the 

Delaware, 73 ; forks of, 73 ; 

surveyors at, 76 
Port Jervis (N. Y.), lxiv, lxvi, 

lxx, lxxii 
Post Office building, the, in 

New York City, xxiii 
Potter, Bishop Henry C, 31, 

49 
Poughkeepsie (N. Y.), 9 
Prevost, Captain Augustine, 

lx, 29, 33; arrival at his 

house, 34, 35 ; sells land, 49, 

81 

Quakers, the, xxx, lxiii 

Quebec, fall of, xxvi ; battle 
of, xxxix 

Queen Anne and the Palatines, 
xxxvii, xlvii ; visited by Iro- 
quois kings, 37 

Queen Anne's Parsonage 
xlvii 



98 



INDEX 



Red Kill (N.Y.), 31 
Rensselaer County (N. Y.), 

Rensselaerwyck, manor of, 14, 

Riche, Thomas, 78 

Richfield (N.Y.), lvii, lix, 34; 

the lake at, 38 
Ridgeway, William, 3; helps 

make the Otego survey, 40, 

44, 49, 60, 61, 81 
Rogers's Island, 13 
Rome (N. Y.), xv 
Romboudt manor, the, xxxv 
Rondout, trading post at, 

xxix 
Rosecrantz — , 76 



St. Paul's Church, in New 
York City, 30 

Saratoga, xlvii 

Schenevus Creek, lix, 55 ; a 
start for, 51 ; trail to, 55, 58 

Schenectady, grant of land at, 
xlii ; destroyed, xliii ; mission- 
aries at, xlvi ; condition of, 
li ; distance of from Al- 
bany, 19; route to from Co- 
hoes, 20; described, 22, 23, 
30; the Mohawk at, 25, 27, 
80 

Schodack, xxx, 14 

Schoharie, xxxvii, lv ; dis- 
tance to from Catskill, 12; 
route to from the Hudson, 
13; the river, 24, 31; set- 
tlers at, 33, 35 ; trail to, 52, 

55 
Schoharie Creek, the, lvii 
Schoonhoven, Richard, 4 
Schuyler, David, lvii, 38 
Schuyler, Colonel, xxxvi 
Schuyler's Lake, 38 
Schuyler, Colonel Peter, xlvii 



Schuyler, General Philip, 15 
Scotch Irish, on the Susque- 
hanna, lviii, 30 
Scotoc's Island, 14 
Scramlin's, 28, 29, 30 
Scutter's Island, 14 
Sergeant, John, lvii 
Shackamaxon, treaty of, lxiii 
"Shades of Death," the, lxxi 
Sharon Springs (N. Y.), 32 
Shamokin (Penn.), lxix 
Shawnee Indians, 83 
Shohola (Penn.), 75 
Sidney (N. Y.), village of, 40, 

Simitiere, P. E. du, xxi; his 
copy of this journal, 88 

Skeneves ; see Schenevus 

Sleeper, John, 46, 54 

Sleeper, Joseph, 46 

Sleepy Hollow (N.Y.), 5 

Smack's Island, 17 

Smith's Lake, 42 

Smith, Colonel, xxxii 

Smith Hall, xviu 

Smith, Captain John, liii 

Smith, Richard, importance 
of his journal, xiii-xiv ; his 
family, xiv ; his tour, xv ; be- 
gins to settle his tract, xiv; 
describes his house, xix; re- 
moves to Smith Hall, xx ; or- 
iginal manuscript of his 
journal, xxi ; changes he 
made in his manuscript, 
xxvi, xxvii ; his visit to the 
Hudson Valley, xxvii ; when 
he visited the Susquehanna 
Valley, lx; his journey from 
Burlington to New York 
City, 3 ; from New York to 
Albanv, 4-18 he lands at 
Denton's Mill, 8; at Beek- 
man's Manor, 10; meets 
Hans, an Indian, n; lands 



LCF 99 



INDEX 



on the Catskill shore, 13 ; de- 
scribes Albany, 16-18; leaves 
Albany for Cohoes, 19; de- 
scribes Cohoes Falls, 20; 
lodges in Schenectady, 22- 
23 ; visits the Johnsons, 23- 
25 ; at Kincaid's, 26-27 ; at 
Canajoharie, 28; starts for 
Cherry Valley, 29; Cherry 
Valley described, 30-31 ; 
reaches Otsego Lake 35 ; 
meets Colonel Croghan, 36; 
starts to make his survey, 
37; dines on his own terri- 
tory, 39; describes the Ot- 
ego country, 40-43 ; returns 
to Croghan, 44; describes 
lands about Otsego Lake, 
45-46; launches a canoe, 46; 
engages Joseph Brant as a 
guide, 47 ; describes a bark 
canoe, 48 ; describes lands on 
the Otego Patent, 50-51; 
starts for Schenevus, 51-52; 
describes his course, 53-54; 
meets Dorn, a Dutchman, 
56; starts for Oghwaga, 58; 
passes the Charlotte, 58; ar- 
rives at the mouth of the 
Otego, 60; at a village of 
Mohicans, 62 ; engages 
another guide, 63 ; arrives at 
Cunnahunta, 63 ; reaches 
Oghwaga, 64 ; describes that 
town, 65-67 ; attends ser- 
vices, 67-68 ; leaves for Cook- 
ooze, 70 ; at Cookooze, 72, 
73 ; at Cushietunk, 75 ; 
reaches Fort Jervis, y6\ at 
the Delaware Vater Gap, 
Jj; at Easton, 78; at Tren- 
ton, 79; reaches Burlington, 
80; his table of his tour, 
81-82 ; his notes on the man- 
ners and customs of the In- 



dians, 83-88; copies of his 

journal, 88 
Smith, Richard R., xx 
Smith River, lxi 
Smith, Samuel, xiv 
Smollett, Tobias, xxi 
Sopus ; see Esopus 
Sopus Kill, 12 
Southampton (L. L), xxx 
Speir, Archibald W., lxix 
Spencer, Rev. Elihu, lvi 
Spencer, Thomas, 72 
Springfield (N. Y.), 29, 35 
Spuyten Duyvil (N. Y.), 4 
Stamp Act Congress, the, 

xxiii 
Stamford (N. Y.), lxxii, 31 
Station Point, the north, 73, 74 
Steele, O. W., 22 
Steele, Richard, 37 
Stone, W. L., xxxi, 24 
Storm King, 7 
Stringer, Doctor, 31 
Stroudsburg (Penn.), lxxi 
Stuyvesant, Peter, xxix 
Sub-Treasury, the, in New 

York, xxiii 
Sullivan County (N. Y.), 22 
Sullivan, General John, 24; his 

expedition, 49, J 2 
Summit Lake, 31; trail to, 52; 

Van Valkenburg killed on, 

Susquehanna River, the, xvi ; 
traders on, lv ; first white 
men on, liii ; first title to, 
lvii ; settlers on, lx ; trouble 
on, lxix; settlers on, 8; Mor- 
ris patent on, 13; lands on 
owned by General Brad- 
street, 15 ; settlements on, 
29; sources of, 36; arrival 
on, 43-44; course of, 49; 
trail on, 52 ; lands on, 61 ; 
widening of, 64, 81 



TOO 



INDEX 



Sussex County (N. J.), lxii, 78 

Talleyrand, Prince, 42 
Tamanend, lxii 
Tammany, lxii 
Tappan (N.Y.), 4 
Tarrytown (N.Y.), 5 
Teyonadelhough (N. Y.), 56; 

see Unadilla 
Thayendanegea, 37; see Brant, 

Joseph 
Tioga Point (Penn.), 49 
Treaty of Paris, the, xxvi 
Trenton (N.J.), 79, 80 
Tribes Hill (N.Y.), 24, 25 
Trumbull, John, 67 
Tryon County, population of, 

xiii ; militia of, lviii, lx, 24, 

28 
Tryon, Governor William, 24, 

25 
Tunaderrah ; see Unadilla 
Tunadilla ; See Unadilla 
Tunnicliffe, family of, lix 
Tuscaroras, the, liv 
Tuscarora Town, 67, 83 
Tyler, Bazilael, 75, 79 

Ulster County (N. Y.), xxxii, 
6, 22 

Una, an Indian, 63, 71, 75 

Unadilla, origin of the name, 
39; village of, 40; trail at, 
56; Mohicans at, 63, 72; de- 
struction of, 72 

Unadilla River, the, xvi, liv, 
lvii, lix ; tributaries of, 39, 
42 ; trail along, 52 ; mouth 
of, 62, 64 

Utica, xliii 

Van Camp, Colonel, 77 
Van Cortlandt, Colonel, xxxvi 
Van Cortlandt Manor, the 
xxxv, 5 



Van Cortlandt, Oliver, 5 
Van Cortlandt, Stephanus, 5 
Van Curler, Arent, xlii 
Van der Donck, xl 
Van Rensselaer, Colonel John, 

15 
Van Rensselaer, Killien, xxxiv, 

17 ; his lands, 21 
Van Rensselaer, Stephen, 17 
Van Rensselaer Manor, the, 

beginnings of, xxiv, xxxvi, 

xlii 
Van Rensselaer, Mrs. Schuy- 
ler, xxxiv 
Van Valkenburg, Joachim, lix, 

53 ; see Yokum's 
Vastric Island, 13 
Verplanck Manor, the, xxxv 
Virginia, population of, 

xxxviii 
Visscher Map, the, xxvii, liv 

Waggoner's Patent, 35 
Walkill (N.Y.), 9 
Walking Purchase, the, lxv, 79 
Wall Street (N.Y.City), 

xxiii, xxxiii 
Wallace Patent, the, lvii 
Wallace, Alexander, 62 
Wallace, Hugh, 62 
Walloons, settle on Manhattan 

Island, xxvi ; in Albany, 

xxvii ; on the Hudson, xxxi, 
Walpack, 78 
Walton, William, lx 
Walton House, the, xxiv 
Wappinger Creek, xxxv 
Warren's Bush*(N. Y.). xlviii 
Warren, Sir Peter, xlviii 
Washington, George, xxxv, 

11 
Wauteghe ; see Otc^o 
Waywavyonda (N. Y.), xxxi 
Wells, Robert, on the tour with 

Mr. Smith, 20, 29, 44, 50, 



IOI 



INDEX 



60; observes transit of Ve- 
nus, 64; on his way home 
with Mr. Smith, 71, 78, 80, 
81 

Wells, John, 30 

Wells, Major, builds a fort at 
Oghwaga, lxx; arrival at 
his house in Cherry Valley, 
30; at service with, 31; his 
farm, 32; his store, etc., 33, 
35, 65, 81 

West Indies, flour sent to, xiv 

West India Company, the, 
xxxiv 

West Jersey, lxiv 

West Kill, 35 

Westmoreland County (Penn.), 
lxxi 

Wheelock, Doctor Eleazer, 37; 
his school, 47 

Wicwise — , 68 

Wilkes Barre (Penn.), lxxi 



Wiltwick (N. Y.), settlement 
of, XXX 

Windsor (Conn.), 35 

Wise, Thomas, xix 

Wolfe, General James, xxxix 

Woodbridge (N. J.), 3 

Wyalusing (Penn.), lxix 

Wyoming (Penn.), John But- 
ler at, xvii, lxv ; people from 
Connecticut in, lxx ; Massa- 
cre of, 24; road from to 
Bethlehem, 57; settlers 
bound for, 56, 68 



Yager, Willard E., 86 

Yale University, 57 

Yates, Christopher, 40 

Yokum's, arrival at, 52; his 
settlement, 53, 55; road 
from to Cherry Valley, 57 

Yonkers, xxxv, xxxviii, 5 



I02 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



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